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RAISING HOGS 

FOR PROFIT 



The Key to Success with Hogs— 28 

Years' Experience in Breeding, 

Rearing and Shipping 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



,7 




1911 
THE M. L. BOWERSOX BREED INC CO. 
BRADFORD, OHIO 



6 



Copyright April 17, 191 1 

by 
M. L. BOWERSOX 



©CLA297«»3 



M 



Table of Contents 



AN INDEX OF THE PRACTICAL SUBJECTS 
TREATED UPON 



Introduction 9 

History of Chester White and O. I . C - - 11 

How the Chesters Got Their Name 15 

Personal Experience — What and What Not to Do 16 

General Hog Business for Profit 20 

How to Advertise Your Business 24 

Winter Pigs 26 

Poultry ". . / - 27 

The Boar and His Care 28 

The Brood Sow — Selection, Breeding Time, Care W 7 hile in 
Pig, Farrowing Pen, Portable Hog House, Nip- 
ping Teeth, Food, Diseases and Cure 31 

Sow Eating Her Pigs 4o 

Safety Breeding Crate 44 

Hog Houses, Construction, Plans 47 

Sanitary Hog Troughs 52 

Making Crates For Shipping Purposes — Illustrated - - 55 

The Rooting Hog, Castrating 51 

Swine Plagues, Cholera, etc., Preventive Measures 60 

L ittle More About the Brood Sow (54 

The Proper Time to W 7 ean Pigs • • 65 

Feeding Hogs 67 



Wholesome Advice — Pays to Smile 69 

Bedding for a Hog or Pig 70 

Practical Receipts— Remedies for all the Ills of Farm Life 

and Many Others 72 

Hog Lots — Full Description — Illustrated 87 

Does It Pay to Raise Pure Bred Hogs ? 90 

Present and Future Outlook for Hog Business, Census 

Figures 93 

Buying Stock at Fairs 9<> 

Mail Order Buying . . • • • • 97 

Misjudged — Misunderstandings 99 

When Shall We Market Our Hogs for Profit? 108 

Sketches of Vast Importance, Farrowing, Feeding, Shelter 112 

Chicken-Eating Hogs 118 

Worms in Hogs s. 1 22 

A Littte More About the Hog House, Floors, etc. ...... 123 

The O. I. C. Swine-Breeder's Standard — Scoring by Points 130 

Detailed Description 131 

Profits - Important Questions from the Money Point of 

View — Keep Your Temper . 135 

Conclusion of the Whole Matter , 139 




M. L. BOWERSOX 

AUTHOR 



"' '— <<& 



INTRODUCTION 



WHILE I am but a Pennsylvanian Dutchman and have 
not learned all about hogism, yet I feel that I have 
learned enough to do my customers throughout the 
United States and abroad some good by writing a book on 
hogs, their care, and so on. This is not a book on O. I, C. 
alone, and while I have breeding O. I. C. hogs and shipping 
them to all parts of the United States and abroad, what this 
book contains can be practiced with results in great profit to the 
reader on all breeds of hogs. While I favor the great money 
maker O. I. C. breed, I am reasonable enough to state here 
that the kind of a breed of hogs to bay is the kind you fancy. 
If you prefer a Poland-China breed, don't buy any other. 
If you prefer a Duroc, Jersey, or any other breed, doirt buy' 
what you do not want, for if you do and the least thing goes 
wrong you will blame yourself for not getting the right breed, 
or rather the breed you prefer. This book will aid and lead 
you to success if you practice its instructions. It is a book on 
personal experience with hogs, and the result of success and 
profit. 

This book is published because it is needed in every 
house on the farm in this great country of ours; it is pub- 
lished because it is asked for by scores of our customers; 
it is a money maker to any farmer who has but one pig, for it 
will encourage him to get more, because by this book he will 
know how to care for them for profit, and will make money 
out of them if he follows the instructions this book contains. 



10 BY M. L. BOWERSOX 

The price of this book is but $2.00— only at first cost — 
but as stated, it should be in every home on the farm, and in 
order to get it where it belongs we allow seventy-five cents 
on ever> r book sold by any one buying the first book. No one 
needs to hesitate to offer this book for sale, for he will only 
aid his neighbor and friend on the road to success with hogs. 
Fully trusting that these most highly needed pages in this 
our great country will meet with our readers' highest approval 
and that we will all work together to raise better hogs and 
more of them. 

With best wishes for each and every reader of this book, 
I am Yours respectfully, 

M. L. BOWERSOX, 
Manager of the M. L. Bowersox Breeding Co., 

Bradford, Ohio 
Address all orders and business to The M. L. Bowersox Co. 



History of Chester White and O. I. C. 



In the year 1813, an English ship landed at New Castle, 
Delaware, and unloaded some white hogs, which were greatly 
sought atter on account of their size, and they were rapidly 
distributed over the country. The\ were w r hat were then 
known in England as the Cheshire hog, and are described 
as being remarkably lengthy, long bony legs, head large, ears 
long and hanging, back much curved and narrow, sides flat 
and deep, color white. 

We have an account of one that weighed 1410 pounds 
gross and 1215 pounds net. We also have an account of a 
brood sow bred in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, that 
reached 1300 pounds, and afterward raised a litter of four pigs. 
This infusion of blood made a marked improvement in the 
size and appearance of the hogs, especially in Delaware and 
Chester counties, Pennsylvania. 

Following this, in the year 1818, was the importation of 
that celebrated pair of very fine white pigs from England, 
which at the time were called Bedfordshires from the fact that 
they had been bred by the Duke of Bedford— but they were 
known in England as the Woburn breed and described as fol- 
lows: They were first brought to the public notice by being 
exhibited at Lord Somersville's cattle show in 1306, by the 



12 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Duke of Bedford. They were principally white, well formed, 
hardy, very prolific, kindly disposed to fatten, and have been 
known to give twice the weight of other hogs in a given 
period of time. The introduction of these fine pigs gave a 
new impulse to the improvement of swine in Chester county. 

These pigs were bred together and upon the best and 
largest white sows of the country. Enterprising farmers, 
pleased with the result of this cross, bought them up and 
crossed them again upon the best selection, obtaining still 
further satisfactory and profitable results. 

We have no authentic information of any additional in- 
fusion of blood foreign to the now established breed, and 
hence the conclusion is legitimate that the improvement of 
the breedin style, form, quickness of maturity,, etc., has been 
produced from that time to this by judicious selections and 
pioper meetings of the most desirable and,. best adapted indi- 
viduals. 

Tradition tells us as early as 1812 that there was a large, 
a very large white hog found in the counties of (Chester and 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, which was supposed to have been 
brought there by the Quakers who came over with' William 
Penn They were found entirely too coarse and too long in 
'maturing 1 ; tb be profitable. , 

Capt. James Jeffrey, who resided in West Chester, Ches- 
ter county, Pa., in one of his voyages to England, had put in 
his keeping a pair of Bedfordshire pigs, to be delivered to a 
man then living in Pennsylvania, but for some unknown 
cause the boar never went out of the hands of Mr. Jeffrey. 
This boar proved a wonderful acquisition in toning down, 
refining and making profitable the large coarse hdg before 
mentioned. 



BY M. U BOWERSOX 13 

Soon after this, Harvey At wood, of Delaware county. 
Pa., had introduced the improved English China blood. 
This China hog was broad-backed, deep of carcass,, back 
usually swayed a little, legs short, jowl heavy, short head and 
lop ear, large in front and tapering behind. The color was 
white with black, blue and sandy spots in hair; he was an 
excellent feeder and matured at any age. 

The Cumberland hog, or the hog Mr. Jeffrey brought 
over from Bedfordshire, England, was a large, broad-backed 
hog, with excellent hams, short legs, neat head and lop ears. 
His color was white, with black and blue spots in the hair; 
he had great notoriety in England, taking many of the best 
prizes offered there at fairs in competition with all other 
breeds. The combination of the blood of the Cumberland 
hog, the Improved China hog, and the white hog of Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, constituted what was then known as 
the Chester County White hog of Pennsylvania. 

The Chester White hog originated in Chester and Dela- 
ware counties, Pennsylvania. In 183 8, Captain James Jeffrey 
imported a very fine pair of white pigs from England which 
he called Bedfordshires (better known in England as the 
Woburn breed) in color they were white, or principally so: 
they had well formed bodies, were hardy, good feeders and 
very prolific. 

Chester county farmers about this time seemed to take a 
great interest in the improvement of their swine. The enter- 
prising farmers of that day were quick to see the effects of 
crossing their hogs on the very best individuals they could 
select from their own or their neighbor herds, the result was 
ihere w T as a grand improvement in the hogs of the counties of 
Chester and Delaware. It seemed that some of these best 
specimens fell into the hands of Mr. Harvey, of Delaware 



14 BY M. t. BOWERSOX 

county, and Mr. Tousley, of Chester county. Sometime be- 
tween 1845 and 1848, if we mistake not, these gentlemen im- 
ported some White China pigs, known to England as Improved 
China, which carried a cross of the York Cumberland pigs of 
England; in color they were principally white with some 
black, and some were whitish grey. The pigs were crossed 
upon the best specimens, heretofore referred to, and the out- 
come was the foundation or origin of the Chester White breed 
of hogs. 



HOW THE CHESTERS GOT THEIR NAME 

111 is said that in 1848, Uncle Bennie Hickman, of Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, while on his way to the fairs at 
Baltimore and Richmond, said that he had noticed at all the 
fairs that the hogs had names except the best one, and he pro- 
posed then and there to christen them Chester County Whites. 
Mr. Harvey took exceptions, claiming Delaware county had 
the best hog and they should be called Delaware County 
Whites. The two gentlemen could not decide, and it was 
agreed to accept the suggestion of Mr. Clements, that the win- 
ner of the most prizes at the Batimore and Richmond fairs 
should give the name. Upon their return, each one had taken 
the same number of prizes, consequently neither had the 
right to select the name, and they agreed to leave it to the fol- 
lowing judges present: Mr. Thomas Chenney and Aaron 
Clements, and adopted the name selected by Uncle Benny 
Hickman — Chester County Whites. For many years this 
name has been abbreviated, and they are now known the 
world over as the Chester White Hog. 

The name O. I. C. means Ohio Improved Chester, and 
their history is so similar to the old Chester Whites that it is 
useless to take up space to repeat. This gives you a good 
idea that the Chester Whites, to which class the O. I. C. 
belongs, was the result of deep study and carefully selected 
ancestors, and any one breeding O. I. C.\s may well be proud 
of his business, for he will have as good as can be had for 
profit. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 

WHAT AND WHAT NOT TO DO 



This part would certainly make a book of itself; so I will 
try and make it short, lest I tire the reader; 

My first pair of pigs was a male and female, of course, 
and no doubt but of 2 one litter. What stock they were, I 
don't know; and I don't think the man knew I bought them 
of: they were black in color. I paid $3.00 apiece for them 
when about eight weeks old: I really wanted them for my 
meat at butchering time. As I had just been married, my 
wife told me that we had to have pigs so we would have meat; 
I had not thought of that, but wife did. Well, I got the pigs, 
I fed them like other people fed hogs at that time, they Were 
killed at butchering time: but they had better have been 
killed when pigs, for I believe they had about all kinds of 
blood of the different breeds in them, and were- bred with so 
much crossing that there was nothing left. I then tried some 
better stock; at least I thought I had; I got a pair called 
Berkshire. Well, I did well with them, but I could not get 
them, nor their offspring, gentle: they proved to be of a vicious 
nature. I cleaned them up, and took up with the Duroc 
Jersey, or Red Hog, as they were called in those days; don't 
think we have any of the breed. now; I hope not, anyhow, for 
when the pigs came the dam had no .use for any one near the 
little fellows — seemed to have fire in their very red hair, and 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 17 

I never had a litter but what one or two bossed the rest, and 
if they could not get to the trough at a certain place they 
would root out the whole mess and lay in the trough; always 
had to separate them to establish peace. But this laught me 
a lesson that has been very profitable, and it is this: We 
should never allow more than four to six pigs in a bunch — 
three is enough for profit. Reader, if you have never tried 
this, it will pay you big for your trouble. If you have two 
litters of about the same age of eight or nine, or any number, 
feed and raise or try to raise one litter together, then take the 
other litter and separate them two or three in a bunch. With 
the same feed out of the same number in litter the separated 
ones will bring you fully one-half more profit than the ones 
allowed to be together. So I learned that much out of the 
red hog temper; and this holds good with all breeds. We 
should never try to feed out a large bunch of hogs together; 
they don't do as well at all as the separated ones; the extra 
work it takes to care for the different bunches will more than 
doubly pay in the extra profit. Well, then, I closed out the red 
hog, and bought recorded Poland-China; but, to my. misfor- 
tune, they were too close inbred, as I afterwards learned, and 
their pigs were large enough in number but never raised more 
thau half. Then when I had raised a fine bunch of shoats, 
and w 7 as proud of my labor and expected a fine rew T ard, 
cholera visited them and one out of forty got over it by 
drinking asafoetida water, but he. so was full of knots and 
swelled legs that he was worthless. So this was my experience 
with three or four different breeds — maybe all kinds of blood 
in them for all I knew at that time. 



18 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

A man must learn. Well, I learned, that is sure. I 
burned up all the old rubbish and corn cobs and nests and 
used coaloil and carbolic acid and turpentine and sprayed 
and cleaned up every thing, but I did not stop my hog ex- 
periment. I wanted something good, but did not have the 
money to buy it, for I was a poor sucker; but I had credit, 
and that is a fine thing for a poor man if he is honest; so I 
borrowed $45.00 at G per cent interest and gave my note for 
fifteen mouths. The man I borrowed the money of thought 
it very foolish to spend $45.00 for a pair of pigs. I told him 
father used to have white hogs and that was what I wanted, 
and if he didn't want to loan me the money I could get it 
somewhere else; for poor as 1 was and only a renter on sixty 
acres (where I now live) I had good credit and many friends. 
So he shelled out the money and I got the pair of O. I. C. 
pigs. When the note was due I paid it off with the money 1 
made out of the first litter of pigs and had $55.00 left and 
the pair for the next litter; and so on up to the present time 
I have been raising and shipping O. I. C.'s. When this 
friend of mine saw that my investment was good he got the 
choice pig out of the litter and at only $12.00, and did not 
charge me any interest on the loan. This was a friend — not 
a selfish, begrudging, anxious chap, like we have so many now- 
a-days. This was about twenty-eight years ago. Today we 
are the M. L. Bowersox Co., and look out for the best for 
our many customers, regardless of price, and this success can 
be obtained with other breeds. 

I like the O. I. C. ; they are just exactly my kind of a hog; 
and another man likes the red or black hog. Let us take our 
preference and hang to it; there is nothing that brings us 
more profit on the farm than a good pig or brood sow prop- 
erly cared for; but let the breed be what strain we prefer, and 
by all means the best, for time is too short to experiment. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX lf> 

About six years ago I had an inquiry something like this: 
"Say, Mr. M. L. Bowersox, I am but a poor man. I like 
hogs, I have a wife and four children, we own two acres only, 
but are in debt a little, yet our two acres are on the thin 
order and I work by ihe day mostly. Will it pay me to buy 
a choice pair of pigs if 1 have to borrow the money?" 
My answer to this man is not necessary to repeat, for space 
forbids. But he borrowed the money and bought a pair of 
(). I. C.'s, and paid me $28.00. He arranged his two acres 
in lots so as to care for his hogs, and took an interest in his 
work. The result is he has bought and added to his two 
acres thirty-eight acres, is out of debt and happy, He 
thinks hogs pay, for I paid him three hundred and fifty dol- 
lars for pigs last year, 1910, and he sold others besides what 
we got. He is wide awake. There are many people that 
could make their lives so much more happy and profitable if 
they only tried. 

Do you know, my good reader, that we can, in a large 
measure, make ourselves just w r hat we want to be, and we 
can do it with this so-called hog. 

If we want to be happy, raise a pig. 

]f we want to have a little jink, raise a pig. 

If we want an automobile, raise a pig. 

If we want to be president, raise a pig. 

If we want to gain an honest living, raise a pig. 

If we want to get out of debt, raise a pig. 

If we want to wear good clothes, raise a pig. 

If we have high ambition and want to gain something 
for our old age, raise a pig. 

For all our needs and wants, raise a pig. 



General Hog Business For Profit 



It is remarkable when we come along life's journey and 
see the hog markets and how they are raised and marketed, 
one often thinks that in this great country of ours, with all its 
practical farm papers and all that can be wished for, the vast 
majority of our people do not stop to even think whether their 
hogs are profitable, whether they pay for their keep or not, 
one cannot help but see all these things in a hog's method of 
doing business. We have many people that do not think any 
more than that a hog is a hog and hoggish care is all they need. 
What a grand mistake. A hog is a hog, of course; but look 
here, a hog will make herself a bed if she is furnished the 
least thing to do it with, and this is one thing in favor of the 
hog. 1 have found places in my time where our race do not 
even make their own beds. So many farmers in our land 
raise hogs like they raise everything else, especially potatoes. 
One man in the neighborhood makes money out of potatoes; 
he happened to get the high price; into it they jump, raise 
pototoes, down goes the price, they are out; no more potatoes 
for them, nothing in it. Same with hogs. One man makes 
money out of a nice bunch of hogs well cared for; his neigh- 
bors think they can do the same thing, when they do not even 
know the least thing about a hog, and they take anything 
just so it has bristles on, and some that haven't got bristles, 



BY M.'.Ii. BOWERSCX 21 

just so it has the name hog - . No consideration is paid as to 
what breed or how often crossed between other breed, whether 
it is all bred to pieces and worthless or not, its a hog. What 
a grand mistake. Their hogs do not do well; they lose out: 
hogs are no good; they will not have anything to do with a hog. 

My good reader, let us be careful about this and throw out* 
inoney and time away. There is always a good grade of hogs 
to be had at reasonable prices if we care not for full blooded 
stock. But do not buy just anything and expect to make 
something out of it. Consider carefully whether you had not 
better pay the price and get something good and then take 
care of it. Better by far have just one good brood sow well 
cared for than "a half dozen scats half fed. It is not always 
the amount that makes the profit; it is always quality that 
counts. Better buy one good one and pay the price that 
would buy three good-for-notHing. How shall we tell? Weil! 
our country is full of reliable breeders who have reputation 
that can be relied on and will treat you right. You can find 
these people amongst any breed you may want; and often a 
breeder has something that has the blood, but for some cause, 
or little defect, will not do for his fancy customers; this is 
what we call a "poor man's hog'', or a bargain — hog or pigf. 
Such pigs can be had at less money than you can buy "culls v? 
from your neighbors, and if properly cared for will bring you 
wonderful results. Breeders of all breeds have this kind of 
pigs each season, and these things are worth while inquiring 
after and finding out. Give the matter a thought as to what breed 
of hog you might prefer, and then make your inquiry, stating 
what you want. Satisfy yourself that the breeder you are 
making inquiries with is all right; this is your privilege, then 
go ahead with your deal.r I am .not prejudiced against any 
breed — any of our noted breeds are -profitable,- if properly 



22 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

cared for. When we go along the highway we notice too 
often a pig pen about eight feet square — a pen, I mean it 
should be, but it is only a shell — a few boards laid over one 
corner of the pen, mud body-deep in wet weather, when cold 
froze up, no bed, six to eight half starved hogs stacked up 
trying to keep to keep the lower fellow in misery so he will 
get out and let the next fellow slide into his place awhile to 
get a little of the steam created. Where do we find this in 
this, our enlightened country? W r hy all over the country, and, 
sorry to say, with well to. do- farmers; but their hogs do not do 
well and it hurts their purse. Well, such people should not 
pretend to have hogs, for they haven't even brute mercy, 
and should receive such treatment themselves. But here we 
are again; it is a hog. 

In such a pen as this 1 have seen Mr. Owner come along 
with half a feed and yell "Hue! Hue!" and slam bang half 
rotten, rodent-eaten corn right in the mud and go about other 
business. Is it any wonder we have swine plague, cholera, 
and so on? Talk about humane officers; talk about pure 
food laws; talk about politics; talk about probing committees, 
my friend, let us refrain from such acts and care for hogs. 
Well, what shall we do? Why, if we do not care to go to any 
expense, let us at least haul a couple of loads of gravel or 
cinders and fix a half way decent place to feed our hogs, 
and sleeping quarters can be readily arranged w r ith a few 
boards. Now do not think that I have everything polished. 
I have some good hog houses, and some awfully poor ones; 
some cheaply constructed (I will speak about this later on); 
but when 1 catch a fellow throwing corn in the mud to my 
hogs instead of on the feed platform, there will be trouble. 
The slop barrel should be kept clean, scrubbed out thoroughly 
at least twice a month. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 23 

The kind of hog troughs to use, we find that iron is the 
best and most durable. Manufactured by the Lehr Agricul- 
tural Company, Fremont, Ohio. Their goods are right, their 
dealings honest and their troughs the cheapest and best, 
freezing doirt hurt them. We give you this not as an adver- 
tisement, but for your own benefit. You will find their page 
in this book for your own profit. Their troughs will last a 
life time. We have no other troughs in use. Generally a 
good oak trough is all right, but cannot be kept clean like cast 
trough. If you have the lumber of your own and prefer to 
make vour own troughs instead of buying them, do not make 
a box. I have seen hog troughs made just like a box, and in 
breeders' lots who should know better. Did you ever see a 
hog with a square nose? I never did. Then how can a hog 
with a V-shaped nose clean up a trough that is square? It 
doesn't fit in the corner, does it? Never make a trough with 
square corners, for the hog cannot get the food out of the 
square corners. And here you will find in hot weather a 
green mess of disease germs. Make your troughs V shape and 
they will be cleaned out clean. The cast iron trough has an 
oval bottom and end and can be cleaned up by the hog, as 
stated. Where -a man has good lumber of his own, he can 
supply his hogs with sanitary troughs, in a large measure, if 
properly made, but to make a good trough means work and 
care. 



How To Advertise Your Business 



In the building of a trade, as given in this book, is one 
lesson, that we should never ship anything- but the best, unless 
we describe the pig or hog carefully to our customer and give 
him the price, and if he takes the offer all right! But to prom- 
ise him a choice pair of pigs, and ship "culls, "does not do. 

You cannot sell that 
man any more, and 
lose a customer, and 
it may cost you all 
you have got out of 
him, and more, to get 
another as good ashe 
might h a v e proven. 
This does not pay. 
When we get a custo- 
mer we should try and 
keep him, and from 
year to year furuish 
him new stock, and 
the best only. Then 
in advertising we 
should use the best 
farm papers, tell in 
short what we have to 




BY M. L. BOWERSOX 25 

offer, and not hesitate in giving full details when we get an 
inquiry. I do not believe in spending all we make to adver- 
tise, and sometimes more. Take matters slow until you have 
a trade: then keep it by pleasing your customers, add to this 
trade as you go along. I am still selling, to customers that I 
sold to twenty-eight years ago, when I first started in the 
O. I. C. business. You would be surprised if I would give 
you the figures of the money some of my customers have paid 
me for hogs in twenty-eight years; and they still come back 
and say, ''We tried other breeders, but we can get the best 
from you. ,, This makes a fellow feel lots better than if it were 
the other way. 

So to hold your old trade and gather in new with putting 
out nothing but the best is the best way for advertising and 
to success. 1 find it far more profitable if I have a bunch of 
pigs that are not just right to fatten them out than to try and 
get breeder prices for them. 



Winter Pigs 



Some breeders say that a fall or winter pig should be 
knocked in the head as soon as they come. I don't think 
that way. A man can with little expense fit a place and get 
the little fellows started out right by taking out their teeth. 
Once start them right, then put them at a place indoors when 
old enough where they can romp around. I have raised just 
as good pigs in the late fall or winter as in the summer. 
True they do not grow as fast and robust as the spring and 
summer pigs; but with plenty of fodder and clover hay where 
they can get at it, and other feed, as described in this book, 
a fall and winter pig can be made very profitable, and need 
not be knocked in the head. But it takes care and attention, 
like everything else, if we want to make a success out of the 
winter pig. One cannot^sit by the stove and let the pig lie 
in a wet nest with their dam and expect good results. Let us 
take better care of our hogs and they will bring us double the 
profit that they did under the old way — hog or hoggish care 
only.. 



Poultry 



I might give you quite a talk along this line, but space 
and time forbids. 

To select a hen for laying purposes in a large bunch of 
hens there are but few of the right kind found. They should 
be a V shaped from the breast back and rather large in 
the neck, very large at the end of the >. A hen short and 
round like a ball with a short neck and squatty, is not much 
good for laying purposes. If you look after this, reader, you 
can improve the laying quality wonderfully. Then where 
eggs are preferred, instead of raising them for market the 
smaller breeds should be kept. I have the Brown Leghorn 
and Rhode Island breeds. Feed for egg production sprouted 
or soaked oats is recommended. I keep dry wheat bran be- 
fore them the year around, with plenty of fresh water. I 
place the bran in a box six inches high and about three feet 
square. They will not waste any — they eat it up clean. 
1 keep the box supplied all the time. Then I feed them once 
per day only in winter time with wheat and oats in the morn- 
ing, placed in litter and make them scratch it out if they' 
want it. In real cold weather I feed them corn about three 
o'clock in the afternoon. This keeps them warm at night. 
We get eggs the year around. Of course I keep nothing but 
good stock— the best money can buy. But do not make a 
business of breeding and shipping the eggs for market — is 
what my wife wants, and she gets them. Try this. Take 
bette care of your poultry; fix up that henhouse; it will pay 
you. Get better stock. Life is too short to waste half of it and 
feed up your grain and get no better results. Get out of the 
old rut; get to work; do better; have better health and live 
happy. Promise your wife that you are going to fix up that 
henhouse and get a good Poultry Journal; then do it and do 
not disappoint your wife by promises only. 




The Boar and His Care 



Here is half of the herd. This hog should have extra 
attention. He should be as near perfect as can be obtained. 
Yet we should not try to get too fine an animal for this, for 
strength and activity is the great feature to be considered in 
the Hoar. No matter how fine and model the form may be, 
if he lacks activity he is not what we want. He should not 
be confined too close, neither overfed, and by no means abused 
when a pig. lie should be handled; teach him to be driven 
to places where you may want to use him; often spend a little 
time petting him; never use rough means. With a boar, 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 29 

clubbing will not do him or you any good; never allow 
him to run with a sow, or turn a sow in with him and leave 
her; such breeding don't pay. What do you know about it if 
you do not witness the breeding? A boar should be handled, 
in a large measure, as a stallion; see to it and assist him in 
his breeding — that it is properly done and at the proper place, 
thereby save your hog and know that the service was properly 
done; then allow a boar to serve a sow but once, for more 
than that is a great mistake. Then separate them in case the 
male is heavy for the sow, if he is kept gentle, much weight 
can be taken off the sow by a man being on each side and 
holding up on him, slightly pulling forward. A breeding pen 
is the most proper thing to use, but we cannot always have 
just what we need. If a boar gets low in activity feed him 
some turpentine in his slop in tea and tablespoonful doses, 
accoiding to size and and age, every other day until three 
doses are given; also put some on his back, over the kidneys, 
in good quantity; this is a great remedy and never failed for 
me. If the sow is slow coming in heat, the same treatment 
will assist her to come around. Spanish fly may be used in 
extreme cases, fifteen drops at a dose, but turpentine has 
generally done all that was desired for me, and is good for 
both male and female and should always be kept on hand, 
especially during breeding season. In no case allow your 
boars to run with sows; it is one of the greatest drawbacks 
you can allow in the hog business, just like allowing a bull 
to run with cows — never know when your cows are due to calf. 
Runty calves and runty pigs can be expected where the males 
are allowed more than one good service. 

In case your sow is hard to get in pig, and she comes in 
heat regular and with no result, breed her as soon as she 
comes in heat— in the morning, then in the evening of the 



30 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

same day; only one service at a time, second day at noon, and 
the following- da\ at noon until she is out of heat. I never 
had this to fail for me. 

The Age of a Boar — So many farmers, even breeders, 
dispose of a boar when they are at their best. What is the 
limit age[of a boar to idscard him ? When he is no good any 
more; but if you have a good boar and can keep up his ac- 
tivity and he brings good strong pigs, just that long he should 
or can be kept, even if six or seven years old. Same is true 
with a sow. We are too apt to dispose of a brood sow when 
she may bring us the strongest pigs. He may have a bum, 
trashy litter along her fourth or fifth litter, then next thing 
she gets is the fattening pen, when, if she had a chance, she 
would bring a fine litter the next time to pay for her loss. 
At least I have found this to be true. 

I mention the sow in this boar article for fear I might 
overlook it. 




Making- Hogs of Themselves 



The Brood Sow 



A book of itself, if properly described, 
have to be brief. 



In this we will 



A sow and a boar constitute a herd. The bood sow is 
the one that needs attention of her owner for profit. How 
often is this neglected. Yet we look forward to a fine litter, 
and we are disappointed if we do not get what we are looking 
for. 

First, w T e must be careful that we select a fine, robust, 
strong animal, not too fancy so that the strength is all gone: 
then she should not be bred too young, allow to mature pretty 
well toward a year before she has her first litter, at least six 
or seven months, so they will have their first litter at a year 
old; if older, all the better. But if a sow is to be kept to 
matured age she should not be kept too fat or she may prove 
too hard to get in pig. And when a young sow comes in 
heat regular and gets in high heat and is somewhat slow in 
growth, she had better be bred, for she will not do any good 



32 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

until she is bred; that is sure. It is the opinion of some 
that a sow should be large to raise large growthy pigs. This 
is a mistake: I have medium size and large sows, and the 
sows of the medium size raise the finest and largest pigs. 
Of course their ancestors w^ere large and they are bred from 
large stock. Now, when we have the good selected sow, let 
us keep her tame so that when the farrowing time comes we 
will not have any trouble. 

Sow at Breeding Time-- I have mentioned how this 
should be done with the greatest care, and I will again state 
that great care should be taken that the boar gets his service 
done properly and before he is clearly exhausted in making 
efforts. This is often the case in careless breeding, by turn- 
ing them together and leaving them. 

Friends, here is a good place to wear kid gloves, and if 
you are too timid to see to this, that it is properly done, better 
not keep a male hog at all. About four years ago I had a cus- 
tomer come ten miles to breed his O. I. C. sow. His neighbor 
had an O. I. C. boar, but he had his sow there twice and with 
no result. He was wonderfully concerned about his luck, 
and was told to bring her here; and he had quite a story 
about his neighbor's boar not being any good, or his sow, and 
so on. Well, we unloaded the sow and I went and got the boar 
best suited, for we generally have seven or eight breeders on 
hand; the sow was in good heat, I assisted the boar, and the 
work was soon done. The fee was $2.00; if not in pig, privi- 
lege to return free. Why, he was surprised — only one service! 
"Why," he said, "I always left her with the boar several 
days.'' I told him this certainly was not the right thing or 
he would have gotten her with pig. I told him to be on the 
watch, in three weeks if she came in beat again he would 
have to leave her then; but she had a fine litter of ten pigs, 
and he has been breeding his O. I. C. sow here since twice per 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 33 

year at $2.00, never made but one trip. His neighbor charges 
fifty cents per service, but don't know what he charges for, 
or knows nothing about it. It pays to know, then do it; any- 
thing worth doing at all is worth doing right. Be careful 
about this breeding business, it is the start to success or loss, 
both of time and money; it brings pigs later than we generally 
want them if we have to repeat the breeding. 

Care for Sow While in Pig— She should not run with 
other hogs; she should be in a lot by herself, or at least not 
more than two brood sows should run together. I find it 
always best for one to be by herself, then she can be fed prop- 
erly just what she should have. 

Feed for a sow should not be much corn. Wheat mid- 
dlings, two parts, one part bran; ground oats, with the hulls 
sifted out, added is good, or the oats soaked in water twenty- 
four hours is good for a change of food. Two or three weeks 
before farrowing she should be slopped with middlings and 
bran slop— bran two parts, middlings one; and close 10 her 
farrowing time she should not have much feed of any kind. 
See Mistress Sow fiXup her nest for her pigs. Be careful not 
to stuff her with too much feed. See to it that her dung is not 
hard before farrowing; if you cannot get her bowels in good 
shape feed a little oil meal. A sow in proper condition with 
the above food will not eat her pigs. If you want a sow to 
eat her pigs stuff her with corn and keep her penned up close 
in a dark place, allowing her bowels to become so feverish 
that when she dungs it is nothing but hard balls —more like 
sheep than hog, then give her a good mess of corn before 
she farrows and she will be in good shape to want meat 
or anything to check her feverish bowels. 

A brood sow, as stated, should be alone in a pen, and this 
pen should be a lot out away from the other hogs so she will 



;;i RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

not be molested; then the lot does not need to be large, say 
100 or even 200 feet long by a rod or so wide. This lot 
should be provided with a good comfortable farrowing house 
at the far end, and Lit the most convenient end of this lot there 
should l>e a feeding floor with a trough; this can be cheaply 
sheltered for bad weather, but not made too comfortable to en- 
courage her to fix a nest there for her pigs, which she will do 
if encouraged. 

Why this double arrangement? Well, here it is, and I 
want my leaders to lest this, it is a natural secret. Now, 
then, we have our sows to farrow in the spring and fall. 
All light, in the fall this plan is not so much needed, for they 
generally have grass and more or less activity; this is not so 
in the spring, they will lie in their nest most of the time, and 
if you feed them in their sleeping quarters, or close by, they 
will get up and eat and lie down, and in cold weather shiver 
with chills regardless of a good nest. Hut where you feed 
them at the other end of the lot, they will get in the habit of 
going to and fro, and their droppings will be along the line 
instead oi having die nest all soiled up. You will be surprised 
how often they will visit their feeding place in a day through 
snow and rain and get plenty of fresh air; then when they go 
to their nest, having had natural exercise, they will not shiver 
and chill, and when they come to farrow they will be in good 
healthy condition, if properly fed. Try this, my farmer 
friend, and you will be well paid for the price of your ground 
and labor. 

While we are with the brood sow, we might as well take 
this part through. The style of lot described can be made as 
large as desired; it should not be any smaller than described: 
the larger the better, o^ course. My lots are about sixteen to 
eighteen rods long and two to three rods wide, with pasture 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 35 

next to the feeding end, in summer time, where they are 
allowed to be during the day, with fruit trees for shade. 
Where these lots are made to remain, there should be trees 
X>lanted for shade: if the open sun, shed roofs constructed. 
Shade is essential for the hog in the summer, with plenty of 
fresh water from a well — not out of stream; water out of a 
spring on your own land, where you have entire control. i> 
all right, but avoid a stream that comes from other lands - 
there is danger of disease germs, though it looks templing, it 
is dangerous. Better keep your hogs back and invest in a 
fountain, or carry your water from the well. 

The Farrowing House — We will give cut showing a 
splendid house that can be bought at a reasonable price, and 
we have same in use of this metal and find them all right, but 
in summer season they should be somewhat shaded during the 
heat of the day. These people are all right: their house is 
cheaper than you can afford to put one up like it out of wood. 
This steel house is very good in farrowing time, for pigs should 
be taken away as fast as they come till they are all farrowed, 
then put to their tit and give them all an equal chance for 
life. Often where a r^ig is left to go to work before the last 
one comes he is stout and sassy and thinks he owns the 
whole ranch. This steel house can be tipped up and a pig 
got out without disturbing the sow: tliey can be kept in a box 
or a big basket till all farrowed, then all put to work. Where 
the farrowing is prolonged, the pigs should be put to the sow. 
for it creates reaction in farrowing when the pigs suck. Where 
the sow is gentle, which they should be, I have left them 
with her, but when a restless getting up and down, shifting 
around, is going on by the sow the little fellows should be 
taken away as fast as they come. In cold weather, when 
they cannot be taken to a stove, several heated brick bats 
wrapped up and put in the box keeps them in good shape. 
I have boxes good and tight for this purpose. 























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THE HARDY PORTABLE HOG HOUSE 

Is so constructed that it enables you to obtain results from 
your brood sows and pigs that are valuable. 

The hog is one of the principal assets to the farmer when 
properly cared for, and time and money spent in keeping the 
sow warm and dry during farrowing time and preventing the 
loss of the small pigs is not thrown away. 

This house is sanitary, well ventilated, easily disinfected 
and is warm and dry. It is five feet wide, six feet long, four 
and one-half feet high, and is made of the very best corrugated 
steel with an all steel frame, well braced and weighs one 
hundred and twenty-five pounds. It can be taken down or 
put together in less than one hour and one man can move it 
about with ease. 

The angle of the roof on this house prevents the sow from 
walking on or mashing the small pigs, thus decreasing your 
loss of pigs while they are small and adding to your profits 
when marketed. This fact alone will more than save you the 
price of the house in one season. 

We guarantee the HARDY PORTABLE HOG HOUSE 
to be made of the very best material and workmanship and if 
properly cared for will last indefinitely. Write for more in- 
formation. THE HARDY M'F'G CO. 

102 State St. Pendleton, Ind. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 37 

Now we have got the pigs, what next? Well, sometimes 
it is all right to put them back to their mother with their teeth 
in their mouth, and sometimes it is not, owing to the time of 
year and size of the litter or condition of the sow. If she is 
nervous, better take their teeth out before putting them back 
to her. What! Pull pigs' teeth? Yes; of course not ex- 
actly pull them, but break them off with small nippers right 
down on the gums. Care should be taken not to allow any 
of the splinters of the teeth to go down in the pig's throat. 
There is not much danger of that, though, if care is taken; I 
never heard of any, and I have nipped thousands of them. A 
side nipper is the best, and can be obtained at a jewelry store; 
with them they can be clipped right off. Why is this done? 
Well, for several reasons. It stops the black teeth business; 
then did you ever see pigs fighting over one tit and the sow 
getting up and knocking her pigs right and left, then finally 
laying down again; and the same thing is repeated till one of 
the fighting Japs is laid out; that stops that, of course, but 
the best pig is gone, as a rule, and the fellow that fought him 
will tackle another, thinking as he conquered once he can do it 
again; next he gets mashed, and often this is kept up till half 
of the litter is gone, and the sow is accused of being too fat 
or careless, and often porked, while the fact is she could not 
stand those little sharp teeth sunk into her bags till the pig 
actually hung fast. Did you ever see the side of a pig's jaw 
all scratched up? It is done by scraping over a tit. I have 
neglected this work already for several days, and all seemed 
peaceful till all at once they w T ould get at it; then I have 
reached in and grabbed the two scrappers and took them to 
some convenient place away from the sow and done some 



38 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

safest plan is, if you want to save the sow and the pigs, take 
their teeth out right away, espcially if the litter is large; the 
teeth they have when farrowed do not* stay, they ccme out 
and new <j|ies take their place; but if taken out the new ones 
will not come soon enough to hurt anything. I have seen 
sows' bags all bit up and scratched like she had been in 
the worst brier patch; in fact I have seen tits half torn off. 
This is all done by the pigs. I tell you it makes a peaceful 
family when their teeth are gone; there is no scrapping and, 
as a rule, they are all raised. 

Do not neglect this part. Get a pair of nippers, lay an 
old sack across your knees, put a good glove on your left 
hand to pervent them from biting you; then get to work; not 
much of a job you will soon learn; do not let any snags stick, 
snip them off close to the ^ums. If you get the right kind of 
nippers the work is easy, small pruning nippers might be 
used. This part done and a few days' watch with railing 
around the side of the nest to prevent the sow from lying on 
her pigs if a regular farrowing house is not used. Your 
work will be largely done until the little fellows get along- the 
age of three weeks' old, then they will want something to eat. 
A small house or a large box with a hole in it so they can 
get in and out at their leisure and their mother cannot molest 
them. Keep shelled corn in this box or house; if in a large 
hog house, let them have the adjoining stall; keep shelled 
corn or ear corn before them where they will not be molested, 
then, when they make an effort to come to their mother's 
trough, give them some milk or slop in their private place 
and watch this carefully. Increase their feed as they grow in 
this place; do not need to be afraid of overfeeding them if 
they have plenty of room and exercise, which they must have. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 39 

I have separate small houses in the lot adjoining their dams' 
feeding place, and they will be there when hungry if food is 
kept there, and you will be surprised how quickly you have 
hogs instead of pigs. And, now, here is where we get our 
profit, if we watch ourselves. Never, under any circumstance, 
keep the pigs penned in with the sow in a close place. Just 
as soon as they begin to scamper out of the nest they should 
be largely at liberty and by all means left on old Mother 
Earth. Give the pigs a chance for their life and you will not 
be bothered with thumps. When pigs are cooped up with 
their dam more or less trouble can be expected. A sow 
should never be placed to farrow where the pigs cannot get 
out and romp around — it is their nature. I raised two fine 
litters this winter in an old shed building, sows being placed 
in pens six by eight, on one side, and holes left for pigs to 
come out in the shed at will, and they were out there before 
three days old, and at two weeks old they had all kinds of 
fun and exercise where they were not molested, and they were 
not three weeks old till that place, 16x26, was not large 
enough and they would go outside and patter around in the 
snow, they did not have any thumps either, nor got too fat: 
they grew like weeds; they went to a place and got corn when 
hungry and water and slop when they, wanted it; and they 
are not pigs now, they will average fifty-five pounds, seven 
weeks old and weaned, and verv little fuss they made when 
their dam was taken away, for they had learned to be hogs 
and to look out for themselves. Xow, then, this is the only 
way to raise hogs successfully. They get in your way once 
in a while, thev often root a little, but you get paid for all 
their mischief if you keep before them; then keep them going 
right along, and when weaning them you can pen them 



40 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

dentist work; then the fuss was at an end, for they had to 
gum it and could not get a hold, so gave up the job. The 
up quite awhile and they will do fine; but do not keep them 
up too long, get them out in a lot with fresh air and sunshine 
and keep them going. You only need to keep this up, if you 
have good stock, for six to nine months till you have a fine 
large hog ready for market. Do not neglect this, my reader, it 
will mean large profit to you. Do not starve your pigs and 
think they will not fatten till they are a year old, and do not 
think that they must get poor before you can fatten them; 
feed them good food, clean at all times; do not think a hog 
can eat rotten corn and get fat; neither use the old method 
that anything is good enough for a hog. Look here, I am 
writing this book for your profit, and I want my readers to 
profit by it. If you have any spoiled corn better bury it than 
to starve a hog to eating it; mouldy corn is not fit for a hog— - 
nor anything else. What shall we do then with our mouldy 
corn? Mind your business and you will not have any, as it is 
our own fault if we have mouldy, rat-eaten, rotten corn. Sure 
it is not the hogs' fault, for if they had the chance, in many 
cases they would have it eaten up before it had a chance to 
spoil. In the first place plant a corn that will mature early 
enough to harvest before too late to properly cure it in the 
shock; then when you go to husking do not leave it lie out 
in the fields for da\^s and weeks in all kinds of weather. 
True, sometimes we cannot help being caught with a load or 
two; then let us keep that separate and feed that first. As a 
rule, my corn comes in dry. But I am getting off the subject. 
In no case feed the spoiled corn to a hog and expect profit 
or success, neither pile a load of corn down to a large drove 
and let them "hog" over it. If you want to feed hogs out for 



I 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 41 

profit, keep tliern in pretty close — not more than four in a 
place, and feed only what they eat up clean and ready with 
an appetite for the next meal; do not keep food before them 
all the time, they will not eat enough. For pigs this is all 
right, but not for fattening hogs. In slopping hogs, some 
seem to think slop must be sour and stale for a hog. Why 
do you not have your wife feed you on garbage, and sour slop? 
See how you would like it; then you can tell better how to 
feed hogs for profit. Clabber milk is all right; good butter 
milk is all right, but just sour milk is all wrong. Buttermilk 
and clabber milk should be fed before it goes to whey. Sweet, 
clean and fresh food is w T hat a hog needs for profit, good 
health and good meat. 

There is one thing certain, before we leave this part, 
and do not forget this, the kind of pork we have to eat is 
made of the kind of food we fatten our hogs with; we can 
make pork to our liking and taste if we feed according. 
Oats, wheat, rye, barley and corn all make good hog feed if 
properly balanced. If you prefer nice, clean, solid, sweet 
pork, fatten your hogs out on a mixture of grains ground fine. 
This mixture ca;n be made with oats, four bushels; corn, two 
bushels; wheat or rye, two bushels; barley, two bushels; and 
a small portion. of wheat bran and middlings used with this 
make fine pork and healthy. If not ground extra fine, hulls 
should be sifted out. This may be fed dry or in mushy slop. 
Give this a test with a hog fattened on corn and water alone 
and you will cut out your careless feeding. 

Why don't that hog eat his corn ? Why don't he fatten ? 
And many other things. He may be wormy. Feed him some 
good worm remedy; the druggist will be glad to help you out. 
There are many guaranteed worm remedies. Turpentine is 



42 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



good, in tablespoonful doses, every other day till four doses 
are given. Salvet or medicated salt, manufactured at 
Cleveland, Ohio, claims to have the sure remedy. Ashes and 
salt is good; but care must be taken with this, the ashes form 
a lye, and injure young pigs. I use turpentine generally in 
slop, and if this is used occasionally not much danger of 
worms nor other diseases. In many cases where hogs do not 
do well in fattening their teeth become sore. All corn should 
be kept away for a time and sloppy food fed. This will give 
their teeth a rest and a chance to get all right; then corn may 
be added again. 




Sow Eating Her Pigs 

I have mentioned considerable about this on other pages, 
but will give this in full. 

I never knew a sow to e^t her pigs, or even run after 
chickens, where she was properly fed. A brood sow should 
be always well cared for if profit is expected out of her. A 
brood sow can handle and needs large quantities of corn : in 
fact as much as she can eat up clean. When pigs are sucking, 
at the age of four or five weeks, up to weaning time, the sow 
should I not be fed sparingly, but plenty and a good variety of 
potato parings, cabbage, beets, anything along the vegetable 
line. Raw T or boiled potatoes are good — raw potatoes are a 
fine thing to rid worms from hogs. Wheat, middlings and 
bran is the great slop food for the brood sow, especially during 
the time she is raising a litter. 

Three weeks before she is due to farrow feed this in slop: 
Two parts middlings to one of bran. Up to the last week it 
should be two parts bran to one of middlings; then after far- 
rowing the first thing water, if she seems to be thirsty; do not 
give her too much, give her plenty, and all she wants by in- 
tervals; then when you begin to slop her, give her a teaspoon - 
ful of turpentine in her slop once a day for three days; this 
will help her kidneys along, which were under great strain 
during farrowing time; then increase the feed gradually as the 
pigs take it. So often we hear of bad luck in farrowing. "Sow 
was too fat, I guess.' ' Well, if you want a starved mess of 
pigs, just starve a sow and you will get them. A sow can be 
too fat, of course,, but she must be in good flesh. If you ex- 
pect a fine hardy litter, they will soon reduce the flesh. As a 
rule, where sows have been having bad luck in farrowing 
they were not in proper condition. 




Safety Breeding Grate 

Mere is one of the most needed pieces of work in the hog 
business. I am not giving you this as an advertisement; but 
I am often asked what to do to use a large boar with a young 
sow. Here it is, and can.be bought far cheaper than to try 
to manufacture one, and where any breeding is done for 
profit one of these crates should be used, We are using them 
and find they pay for themselves twice over in one season. 
Any sized sow can be bred to a large boar. No more trouble 
about that boar getting too big. Get one of the Safety Breeding 
Crates and keep your big boar; it will pay you in getting bet- 
ter pigs, stronger and more of them, for there is no running 
around after that old brimming sow all over the farm. Put her 
in the crate, get your boar and the work is easy. After you 
have one of these crates you would not think of breeding a 



BY fit. L. BOWERSOX 45 

sow any other way. Train your boars to it when youhg; 
old boars can be readily trained with gentleness. It certainly 
pays to use a crate of this make, and, while we have enough 
business without furnishing crates, you can place your order 
with us and we will see that you get one at once. The price 
is sio.00 only, and the profit in two litters over the old hap- 
hazard fence corner breeding will pay for one of these up-to- 
date crates. They can be ready gauged to fit any sized sow, 
the boar can be raised or lowered to suit. But now, look 
here, do not understand me that you can use this machine 
and breed a sow T any time, whether in heat or not. It is wise 
to be sure your sow is in heat before placing her in crate. 
This can readily be determined by allowing her to get along 
side of the boar in adjoining lot or pen, or by her action in 
other wavs. There is but very little weight on the sow. 1 How 
often a sow is breed just about half and often the boar gets 
worn out making elorts before the work is accomplished. 
By the use uf this crate you can do the work complete in all 
cases. This crate can be placed in a small passage way of 
feed room, or any convenient place. We have a house fixed 
on purpose for this work. Running around after sows does not 
pay. Go and get your boar several times Where your crate is 
and after that all you need to do is to let him out and he will 
come on his own accord. Send your orders for this crate to 
the M, L. Bowersox Co. and you will have prompt service, 
and it will not cost you one cent extra; you get the crate for 
the same price as if you would order direct from the factory 
where they are made and ready to ship any time of the year. 
But it is wise to place your order in time and have your crate 
ready, for you certainly will not regret the money spent, and 



4(i 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



you do not need to turn away your customers because your 
boar is too large: and after your community learns that you 
are fixed for the business they will gratefully give you their 
business, even at an advanced charge in price that will soon 
pay you back for your crate. 

Friends, this is placed in this book for your own profit 
and welfare; give it the proper thought, and let us quit this 
old haphazard breeding; it does not pay; life is too short to 
be aggravated running around after hogs at this period, and 
it is dangerous. We get out out of sorts and we say things 
we should not say; we do things we should not; we often have 
to really be ashamed of our actions after such flurries or pass 
them. Why not stop it and enjoy our few days here and get 
more profit out of this breeding business and live like people 
ought to live. Let us have your order at any time to stop all 
this worry and fuss, and tell your community you are prepared 
for the business. Asking you kindly again to look after this, 
it will pay you to look into the matter. 



I 






Hog Houses 



Where a house is to be used for a brood sow, it should be 
constructed with good judgment. It may be made by driving 
four stakes and place old rails over the top, or old board, and 
well covered with straw, old hay or fodder, closing three sides 
with fodder or straw, fencing it to hold the straw in place, 
leaving the side facing the south half open. This kind of a 
house can be erected very cheap and made safe from frost in 
winter or late fall or early spring. While a mere practicable 
house and more convenient, can be cheaply constructed by 
selecting a high place where water is not likely to collect: 
and to avoid this it can be slightly filled. Take 2x4 scant- 
ling, cut the rear pieces three feet long, front or highest point 
four feet, cut your end boards six feet long, seven wide. 
Any cheap lumber may be used. Xow-a-days when all 
kinds of good felt or rubber roofing can be had to cover such 
a house, top, sides and ends, close the front up with the rest, 
leaving only a good sized door way. Build this house so you 
can open it at the rear with a door, so in case of wanting to 
get pigs away from the sow, it may be opened for that purpose 
and not molest the sow. Be sure and put railing around the 
inside at bottom, both rear and sides, a board at least six 
inches wide, six to eight inches from the floor or ground to 
to prevent the sow from lying on her pigs. Face this house 



48 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

somewhat southeast, or straight facing the south. If the 
house is preferred with a floor, do not elevate the affair to 
save lumber from rottening and allow draft underneath. Get 
you floor' right down on the dirt, burying the nailed ties into 
the earth so that no air can circulate. An elevated house is 
all right in summer but not in winter; in fact, I do not ap- 
prove of them in the summer, disease germs will collect, 
and this rear end door can be opened in summer, and you will 
find it a nice cool house and very cheap and comfortable. I 
have a number of these, and they cost along from $5 to $6 
at the highest mark for good material all around, and two 
hours 1 labor will make one. Why not keep your pigs in 
comfort and save feed and our pig, it certainly pays; and for 
a renter that is obliged to move, these houses can heredity 
moved. These houses can be made smaller or larger, to suit 
the sized hog that is to occupy them. Many different plan 
hog houses can be constructed. The steel type can be readily 
made out of wood and very convenient; but in all cases put a 
door at opposite end, to open in summer time, to allow air to 
pass through in hot weather. Hogs should be fed early in 
the morning and water placed in their troughs. If no foun- 
tain is used then they should not be disturbed during the day. 
Twice per day is supposed to feed hogs; they are better off not: 
to be molested at the noon hour; then in the evening they 
should be fed before sundown. Summer and winter a hog 
don't like night feeding; neither do I; and it should not be 
practiced. Many a cheap comfortable hog house can be 
erected; but now and then where a man has the means and 
wants to have a comfortable, convenient, regular hog house, 
I will give you the most up-to-date plan, and one that can be 
improved but very little, and anyone wishing to erect a con- 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 49 

venient hog house, and one that will accommodate a large 
number of hogs in ever respect, will never rue taking this 
plan. There will be one of this plan erected here on this farm 
this season, nothing serious preventing. The plan is this: 
Face the south, or at an angle southeast, according to favor- 
able spot; put up your solid concrete foundation double house, 
with a 10-foot drive way through the center; arrange your 
pens at leat seven feet square. I w T ould recommend the floor 
part dug out and filled in with cinders, as stated in this book. 
You will appreciate this kind of a floor for a drive way. 
Cement the outside. Pens should be all cemented at least 
seven feet square so as to give the hog a chance for cleanli- 
ness. Yards should be concreted to allow them on the ground 
when weather is fit for exercise. The outside cement pen should 
be three inches lower than the inside. When the wall is put up, 
/^-inch bolts, six inches long at least, should be placed in the 
wall, head down, allowing 2^ inches to project; then use 
2x6 sill; place tar paper, or rubber roofing on the sill; slip 
your sill with holes bored correct over the bolts; bolt it fast; 
draw it tight, and then do not allow your floor to come up 
any closer than two or three inches to the sill and your sill 
will always remain dry and tight to the wall and will not rot 
out. Now the frame — Build your south pens with a shed roof 
just as though you were building a single pen, high enough 
for your convenience; arrange your doors and windows so 
they will not interfere, and a big half sash in a slide frame 
up and down with a pulley and light rope in the drive way, so 
it may be raised or lowered at will from the drive way; doors 
the same, so you can *hut a hog out or in before they are 
aware anyone is around. A big half sash gives light and 
sunshine enough in one pen, but each should have one win- 



50 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



dow. I prefer these pens. Front just about two or three 
inches higher than the drive way. Then place a good, neat, 
substantial trough, long enough to accommodate what you 
may want to put it. Then I prefer a boxed swinging 
door over the trough so I can swing in the door over the 
trough and shut them back till I have the feed or slop in, 
then close the door and allow them to come up decent. This 
does away with the old time shute; and if there is any dirt in 
the trough it can be removed with ease, for there are no hogs 
to bother you. This can be managed by placing a good 
strong board half A shape at each end of the trough, big end 
down, to keep the trough closed when the door goes in. You 
will find this the most convenient and most pleasant w T ay in 
feeding and slopping hogs you ever experienced, and it pays. 
You will enjoy it, for you can have on good clothes or kid 
gloves, as you like, and no hogs and slop all over you. 
Now we have the plan of troughs, doors and windows. Now 
the north section is the same as the south, only the shed roof 
must stand rihgt above the south side of drive way high 
enough to allow a window for each pen in the north section 
so as to get light and sunshine in the north pen. Then your 
building is an up-to-date hog house like this: 




BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



51 



You will never regret the money spent for this kind of a 
hog house. If you cannot perfectly see just how the length, 
breadth and so on should be, take this to your carpenter and 
he will soon make for you a drawing that will show you just 
the ideal house and give you figures of what it costs to erect it. 
Xow the doors at the drive way should run on rollers iii two 
sections and should run in double wall and cemented grove be- 
low, so that when closed it is tight and no wind and air blow 
in at one end, either east or west. Next to this main hog house 
a shed can be erected for storage of feed, straw and fodder, with 
a ground floor and windows only to the south. This will make 
a fine place for young pigs to ran in, and also allow their 
dams out in bad weather. Such a hog house with this feed 
and straw shed will soon pay for itself. Try it and be well 
rewarded for all your labor. 




THE LEHR SANITARY HOG TROUGHS 



They are without an equal, absolutely sanitary and will last a lifetime. 




DIMENSIONS HEIGHT TOP WIDTH BOTTOM WIDTH 

Outside .... 5 in 12 in 3 in. 

Inside .... 4>£ in i()j£ in 2 l / z in. 

This style is made in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 foot lengths. The 2 foot is made 
with or without cross bars. 




DIMENSIONS HEIGHT TOP WIDTH BOTTOM WIDTH 

Outside... 6 in 12f4 in. .3^ in. 

Inside 5# in. 11 in 2% in. 

This style is made in ?>£ foot length only and is particularly adapted 
for feeding a large bog. Made with or without cross bars. 



Has eight corn- 
pa r t in ents. 
Will feed eight 
hogs at one 
time. Every 
hog breeder 
should have 
them. 




The guards pre- 
vent the hogs 
fro in interfer- 
ing with one 
another. Each 
hog, whether 
large or small, 
is sure to get its 
share of feed. 



The Lehr Troughs are made from a select grade of iron. They 
will not break by water freezing in them, nor rust through. Being made 
without a joint, will not hold feed or dirt like wooden or sheet metal 
troughs, hence are absolutely sanitary. The feed in them is always 
sweet and clean. They are heavy and substantial, practical and econom- 
ical. Considering the durability, they are cheaper than other troughs. 
There are thousands of them in use, and every hog breeder or farmer 
having Lehr Troughs would not do without, nor have any other. Our 
best testimonial is that many are placing their second order and some 
their third. THE LEHR AGRICULTURAL CO., Fremont, Ohio. 

Address dj.sk No. 2. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 53 

Round hog trough accommodates eight head, and I will 
here state that the manufacturers of this trough do not realize 
its value in use to the farmer. I will tell my people and 
readers how to use this trough. 

Build a good solid platform eight or ten feet square: 
place this trough in the center of this platform; build a flat 
roof over it, projecting at least a foot out on each end; make 
this roof about three to four feet high. Make a square wooden 
funnel, big at the top, about twelve inches square, taper it to 
a point about five inches square, let this end come within about 
one and one-half inches o f the top center of this trough. 
Make a lid for this funnel, so that no water can get in. 
Then a few steps up at a convenient place, slop and feed your 
hogs from the roof, and have them out in an open lot. You 
will be surprised what a self-feeder you can make out of this 
trough. Try it, and tell these people what you have done: 
they do not know; but I know what you can do. Try it. 



Making Crates For Shipping Purposes 



Great care should be taken to make these neat and strong. 
One great mistake that many breeders make they put their 
frame posts on the inside, which makes a weak crate, and the 
posts interfere with the pig or hog. Sharp corners should be 
rasped off or dressed. A little common sense and time will 
make a neat and comfortable crate. Most any kind of native 
timber can be used, if properly sawed. Then do not try to 
use a common big nail where a light box nail should be used. 
I use nothing but the very best of barbed box nails in eight 
penny and six penny; this gives me, too, the proper size for 
heavy and light crates. I also keep a light shingle nail and 
sprig nail of different sizes on hand, and I find that it pays. 
Then if you have no native timber of your own and go to the 
lumber yard to buy it, buy the good box lumber, use good 
judgment and your crates will look neat, and the man that 
receives the pig will at least think you know your busines. 
It is actually a shame the way some breeders put up their 
crates. I have seen them here at this station for transfer that 
were made out of old fence boards, half rotten rubbish pile 
boards of all widths, thickness, and neither end post alike 
and inside of the crate. 1 noticed one crate made out of a 
combination 2x4, lx(j, 2x0, 1x2 for posts, sides were fence 
paling and old barn siding — some 1x2, some J^x6, some 2x6, 
and I actually believe that the half of these boards w 7 ere cut 
off with an ax, and a dull one at that. Friends, this is none 



56 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

of my business, of course, and I do not want to criticise, but 
we breeders—white, black or red — let us be more civilized; it 
hurts your business to ship hogs in such crates. If you were 
to stand by at a station and hear the remarks made about 
such business, you certainly would not have nerve enough to 
step up and say, "My friend, 1 made that crate and I am the 
breeder of that hog, or pig. ' ' Let us be careful and get enough 
ahead some way to get tools, and if we want to make crates 
out of old timber let us work them up and plane them down 
to respectable appearance at least; this is economy. I have 
seen crates, as these described, that, with tools, there could 
have been three respectable crates made out of the lumber 
that was in one. The express is just the same on crates as on 
hogs, and it is up-hill business for a customer to pay more on 
the crate in express charges than on the hog and then have a 
worthless crate, something that he is ashamed of, to let his 
neighbor see that his fine hog was shipped in such a thing. 
Look here, brother breeder, stop this; if you cannot make a 
crate, or have not the tools, hire a man that has the tools and 
ability to make a neat crate for you. I have made crates out 
old lumber, and when completed it could not be detected, un- 
less closely examined; but it takes tools and labor. 1 heard 
the remark of a wealthy farmer once at the station, sizing up 
a hog and a crate, and it was this: "Well, I like good stock 
and often thought I would invest in some and get on the right 
track, but when a man sees such an outfit as that, with the 
breeder thrown in, one loses courage;" for he said, "that hog 
may be all right, but the the man that shipped it is not." 
If I had to pay the express on such a crate as that, both hog 
and crate would go back to the shipper. Let us cut this out. 
We can do better; then why not do it? 



The Rooting Hog 

"Root, hog, or die'' is generally the saying. It should 
be "Root, hog, and die," for a rooting hog is worth but little 
more than a dead hog. Take, for illustration, a sow that is 
suckling pigs; let her get started to root and she will let her 
feed lay and go and root: if allowed to continue her rooting, 
the result will be a pile of dry bones — both sow and pigs; and 
what is more annoying and aggravating than to have every 
thing rooted up. Some crank will say, "Turn a hog out in 
clover, encourage them to root, they get the grub worms." 
Well, I would like to see a hog fattened on grub worms. To 
have your pasture all rooted up does not benefit the hog. 
They say they find roots. I do not know what they get. They 
often receive the end of my boot when I catch them rooting 
around me; and if that does not stop them, they get a ring 
next in their nose. Some say it is profitable to them. Well, 
I do not know. There is one thing I do know, it is not very 
profitable to a fellow's neck when he walks out at dusk after 
cattle, or general business in the pasture lot, and before he has 
time to think tumbles in a hog hole, as I call them; one 
thinks it a hog or hoggish hole if it rained a heavy rain before 
you happened along that way, and a fellow hardly ever 
thinks of anything about that time. 



58 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Well, the remedy for this is easy enough. There is no 
danger in ringing a hog if proper rings are used. They should 
not be set too deep. Some people are brutish about ringing 
hogs and pigs, and gets so awfully out of sorts that they 
almost take a hog's head off; no use in that, it is hog nature 
to root. But at this day and age it is different with the hog's 
snoot, than it used to be, when they had to be turned out in 
the forest, and turned over leaves and brushes to find acorns 
and the like; then they had to use their rooters. But now-a- 
days in pasture and feed lots, it is all together useless for a 
hog to root. I find that a small rope with a small ring tied 
on the end, making a loop with the rope through the ring, 
slipping it in the hog's mouth back of the upper teeth, then 
draw up the loop and let them pull back; this draws their 
attention and the ringing can be done easily and correctly. 
On a large hog this can be done by getting them in close 
quarters with a hurdle or gateway, often can be accomplished 
while eating, if tame. A good place to get them is in a nar- 
row gang- way, hog shute or hog crate. Be careful, do not 
set your rings too deep. Some use hog snouters, as they call 
them. Well, I do not believe in them. In the first place 
it looks brutish; then it spoils the looks of the hog; then 
again 1 have seen hogs that were snouted, as they call it, 
and when their noses were healed up they rooted just the 
same. Does not hurt to ring them at all if properly done. 
And it is a detriment to a hog to root. Stop it, but handle 
your hogs with care so you do not hurt them. To tame a 
vicious boar, get him in close quarters; get a stout small 
chain in his mouth, same as for ringing, back of his upper 
tusk, tie him firmly to the fence or post, take a heavy iron or 
steel wedge, hold its sharp end to the root of the tusk, then 
with a riveting hammer you can readily knock them off; 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 59 

sometimes it is best just to knock off half. As a rule this 
tames a vicious boar. Care and good judgment must be used 
in this work. 

To castrate a large hog, this lasso business around the 
upper jaw is of great benefit, it draws his attention andean 
be tied to a post before throwing him; care must be taken 
that he will not get the lasso loose. 1 have castrated monster 
big boars in this way when there were only three men of us. 
Great care, caution and good judgment should be used in 
these cases. Nothing better for a man than to keep his tem- 
per covered up around a hog, no matter what breed of a hog. 
I do not think that they all drowned when the old fellow was 
in them, but, for all this, some people use the devil for their 
profit, but have to handle him easy. So whether a small per 
cent of him is still in the hog or not, I do not know, but it is 
best to handle a hog gentle and with great care. 



wine Plagues 



This is a subject that is hard to face, and there has been 
so much written about it in our farm papers and so-claimed 
cholera remedies that advertise their goods and send their cir- 
culars out, that it would seem almost incredible for a man to 
approach the subject of Swine Plagues, for one would think 
that the world knew all about these things and have the ready 
remedy, but this is, no doubt, a mistake. So I will approach 
the subject lightly. 

Cholera is in different forms. It may be a germ disease. 
I heard many talk about cholera, giving different opinions, 
and heard of and read about scores of remedies. My candid 
opinion is that it comes first from a diseased stomach. True 
it is carried by the wind. It is carried on your shoes if you are 
where it is. I have seen it, and had experience with it about 
three years ago, but not since, and I do not want any more 
experience of that kind; it is not pleasant at all. Cholera is 
in a diarrhoea form and also constipated. There is much 
so-called cholera when there is no cholera about it. Genuine 
cholera plays havoc in a hurry. I may have some of my 
readers that do not agree with me that this disease generally 
comes from a disordered stomach. Well, for all the world 
does a hog's stomach get out of order? Well, I admit it is a 
hard matter to stir up a healthy hog's stomach; but, let me 
tell you, if you do get it stirred in the way of cholera, you 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX <i 1 

will not have a pleasant stir of it, for the way the majority 
of hogs have been fed it is a wonder to me that we do not 
have more cholera than we do. But today, with all the im- 
proved stock fountains in use in the west, and large hog ranches 
are reduced, and better and more up-to-date methods of feed- 
ing practiced, there is less cholera. The government of the 
United States is making a big fight to stamp it out, but, until 
more breeders and feeders change their filthy habit of feeding, 
it will exist. The care and feed so many people give their 
hogs it is a wonder to me that we do not have more swine 
plagues than we do. Where a hog is properly fed on good 
clean food there is very little danger of cholera. 

I have nothing to boast of, but some breeders of O. I. C. 
swine claim they are cholera proof. Well, they are a healthy, 
vigorous breed of hogs, but as to cholera and swine plague 
proof, I would not guarantee them. But I have had some of 
my herd exposed to cholera several years ago, but I never 
noticed any break out. I watched and fed them very carefully 
and disinfected everything, thereby the true saying "an 
ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure"; this 
might have saved me and mine, but, as a rule, careful feed- 
ing, most especially when green corn is first used. If the 
cholera, as so many claim, is a germ disease only, why is it 
that we hardly every hear of cholera except in the fall and 
early feeding of green corn, or even when feeding-out process 
begins I have heard. I do not like to say, farmers, but it is 
a fact, hustle around in the fall and see whether they could 
not gather up several hundred bushels of corn to feed out a 
bunch of hogs; and I also know of such farmers losing 
all their hogs and the damaged corn they bought. Mouldy 
and musty grain of any kind is not fit for a hog. And how 



G2 RAISING HCGS FOR PROFIT 

often do we see where corn is piled down to the fattening 
hogs and allowed to half rot under their feet. Kind reader, 
if it is too much bother for you to feed your hogs properly 
once or twice per day, and only what they eat up clean, and 
you must have a store of food before them and think that is 
the way to feed, don't do it in a hoggish way; get a self- 
feeder and put your feed in it, and keep it out of the weather 
and mud holes: then use your stock fountain where they can 
get plenty of fresh water at all times, fountain being kept 
clean and not allowed to become stale and full of germs, as is 
often the case. We cannot be too careful about these things 
in the way of feeding, in cleanliness, in watchfulness and the 
result certainty. 

I fear there are too many of us inclined to think too 
highly of ourselves, and think we know it and do not want to 
take advice. I have learned quite a bit in my time, and I 
have still a lot to learn. We should be careful in this matter. 
A farmer remarked to another farmer, "What are we worth?" 
"Well," was the reply, "that depends on what we are — a 
horse, a mule, a cow, a steer, a boar or a jackass. There's 
a fellow over yonder if I could buy him for what he is worth 
and sell him for what he thinks he is worth, I could rake in a 
pile of money.' ' We should be careful and not think too 
highly of ourselves in the w T rong light, which is against us. 
The fellow that generally thinks he knows it all and is past 
taking advice has not much business among common people. 

So if we are careful and on the watch, and apt to learu 
and reach out for instruction and practice it, we can hold 
these diseases among our stock in check, and reap a big profit. 
Often a simple remedy, timely used, saves many a dollar in a 
case of cholera. In the diarrhoea form, blackberry root tea 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



63 



will check it, if taken in time, in the feeding of green corn. 
In the fall I feed green corn — stock and all — just as soon as 
it comes in roasting ears; but I feed good old corn with it, and 
the new very sparingly; and in slop at this time I use lots of 
wheat middlings, even to low grade flour, till I have the hogs 
used to the green corn, then I can pile in all they can eat up 
clean and it will not hurt them at all. 

Our country is full of good farm papers and plenty of 
reliable remedies, and there are scores of them that are good 
and scores thst are worthless. Spirits of turpentine is a good 
remedy among the hogs. Turpentine occasionally, and good 
old careful feeding, with plenty of fresh water from a good 
well, and plenty of good, wholesome grain, as often men- 
tioned in this book, you need not fear swine plague and 
cholera. 




Little More About the Brood Sow 



Let us watch this animal with the utmost care. The 
reason a sow is more apt to be inclined to eat her pigs in the 
spring of the year is due to her being housed too close, which 
is often the case, and she becomes feverish before she farrows. 
A small piece of salty meat occasionally, at least three weeks 
before she is due to farrow, is good; also salted slop and 
plenty of sloppy food, potato parings, cabbage leaves, mid- 
dlings and bran, and a little oilmeal if bowels are not medium 
loose. Feed plenty of raw potatoes before farrowing and the 
sow w T ill have milk to start out the little fellows on their life 
journey. This should not be overlooked, especially in a 
young sow for her first litter. Let us be on the watch. A 
little time spent around the brood sows, noticing their actions 
and general condition for health, will pay big in the coming 
litter. 



The Proper Time to Wean Pigs. 



This is a question that I am often asked to answer, and 
there is no different answer to this question. The old Penn- 
sylvania rule used to be a "four- week-old-pig-, or at weaning 
time," so at four weeks of age they counted weaning time. 
But this age is too young unless conditions calls for such an 
act, for at four weeks of age, if the sow is well fed and gives 
a lot of milk, they barely commence to eat at that age unless 
encouraged. But in young sows' first litter this four-weeks 
weaning may be required. It all depends upon condition. 
Between six to eight w 7 eeks is about the time when the pigs 
begin to eat and drink real hearty, and they are getting along 
when they show that they are capable of taking care of them- 
selves, no matter what age, they can be weaned with success. 
But never keep the little fellows penned up too long in close 
quarters; allow them plenty of room. I have noticed pigs, 
where the sow w T as poorly fed, that the pigs would have been 
favored, also the sow, if weaned at three weeks. Of coure 
we cannot take such acts into consideration, for any man that 
will starve a brood sow so that she cannot nurish her young 
is no man at all. True, we can overfeed a brood sow. This 
must also be graded; but if we properly feed, and the right 
kind of food, there is not much danger of overfeeding when 
the pigs become pretty stout. 



(jG RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Some one of my readers will say, 4 '0, yes, he can talk 
about feed; how can he afford to pay one dollar and fifty 
cents per hundred hundred weight for middlings and bran at 
the price it retails at this writing?" Well, I admit that $1.50 
per hundred weight of mill feed is high, certainly, but where 
we get value received and a profit we have no room to kick. 
Say, you have several fine sows to farrow. One you feed 
carefully with good food properly and cleanly selected, and 
the other one half housed; one raises all her pigs and no 
runts that was properly fed, and the other carelessly fed 
raises but half of hers' and half of them runts. Where is 
your high priced feed then true? Where there is plenty of 
milk, hog raising is very easy; but a small amount of mill 
feed added to the milk is also good. But where a large num- 
ber of hogs are to be kept and milk is not plentiful, the 
mill feed is very profitable. Even at a high price, economy 
must be practiced. Good, clean clover hay can be cut fine in 
a cutting-box and a portion added to their slop in winter 
when grass cannot be had, or to use corn fodder for bedding 
is grand; they will clean up the good leaves in a hurry and 
clip the hay, too. Try it, and see if they don't. The farmer 
is king among men - but not without a hog properly fed. 



Feeding Hogs 



Is not such an awful task as some farmers seem to make it, 
unless it is done like I have seen it time and time again. 
Brood sows, especially at the far end of the farm, fed at con- 
venience: then their hogs do not do well; nothing- in it at all; 
hogs don't pay. Arrange your hog lots at home — not in your 
front yard, but somewhere around the barns or shed at a con- 
venient place where you can see what they are doing, and 
where they can see you at least twice a day with something 
for the "inner man' \ And, now here, do not understand me 
that you must hang around the hog pens and lots all the time;, 
not even when we get busy: for a man that gets too much in 
his head has no business in the hog pen. In fact, I would 
not know the proper place for a drunken man, unless in a 
mud hole. Let's keep sober. They say a little is all right. 
Well, let it be a little, so we don't get a "jag" on. But the 
hog, feed regular — not just at your leisure, for if you have all 
times, irregular, and at all hours for feeding, they will expect 
it the first glance they get of you. But if you feed regular 
and get around among the hog pens between regular hours, 
your hogs will not set up a howl. You can make a hog what 
you want him to be: you can train him just as well as other 
broods, and you can spoil him, just as you like. Use a cheap 



63 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



bull dog" and shot gun on a hog and get him used to such 
treatment, and you cannot handle him any other way. A 
club, a dog or a shot gun is not needed in die hog business. 
Vicious cross hogs are generally made that way — by cruel 
treatment. There is no animal that will take to kind treatment 
more readily than a hog. Try it and see how fine it works. 
When you come in contact with them, scratch their back a 
little and see how soon they will yield and w T ant more of your 
kindness. While the hog is of a wild nature, it belouhs to 
them as a heritage, and should not be confined in close 
quarters for a long period. Give the hog light, air and sun- 
shine, and a chance to stir, and the profit is yours. 




Wholesome Advice 



Let us get that old grouchy look off our faces and meet 
the world with a smile. If we do not just feel like it at first, 
let us keep on practicing; it is good medicine. You do not 
feel like meeting that fellow with a grouchy look when you 
feel and act different. We can bring grouchy looks on peo- 
ple's faces, and we can bring smiles and sunshine; then why 
not have the sunshine every day? If we cultivate a cheerful 
disposition we will be far happier, indeed. Then let us do 
our best, get sunshine in our homes by looking after our pigs- 
and chickens. If we cannot sing a song, let us get that old 
hen in shape and she will sing a song and lay her egg for our 
profit, and this will help to bring a smile and sunshine in our 
happy homes. Let us be contented with our lots in life and 
do our level best to be happy. Care and sorrow comes to" all, 
but we can lessen them by being cheerful and meet the world 
with a smile. Let us not forget this, kind reader. 



Bedding for a Hog or Pig 



By no means use oat straw nor buckwheat straw. If 
you do you will be sure to have skin poison, scabs, mange 
and pig cough, and stained hair. On a white hog kerosene 
or coaloil should never be put in raw form for lice, their skin 
will not stand it. 

The best bedding for a hog is good rye straw; yet for 
sows with small pigs I prefer wheat straw with plenty of 
chaff, the little fellows can get around in it better; then when 
they are at the age of two or three weeks the rye straw is all 
right. For large hogs corn fodder is grand; they will eat a 
great portion of the leaves, which is good for them, and the 
pulp of the stalk keeps the nest dry. Hay is good for bedding; 
they will eat quite a good bit of it, especially clover hay. 

By all means avoid the old straw in the manure pile. 
Where a nice clean straw stack is out in a field a few 
may be kept, but where a straw pile is in the manure yard 
they will stack up in the manure and get sweaty; and the 
next thing you know you will have a mess of horn-backed 
pigs, scabby, shivering; they will not have life enough in 
them to be out of their hot nest long enough to eat a square 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 71 

meal, and will crawl right back in their old steamy hole. 
Take a nice bunch of shoats and allow them to stack up on 
a manure pile in cold weather, or old half rotten straw stack, 
and see how soon you will have a good-for-nothing mess of 
pigs or hog. Shavings are good for a hog's nest. Sawdust 
is a nuisance, except in outside pens to soak up manure and 
mix with droppings; but for a complete bed, and it alone, it is 
no good. 

Where hogs are confined in winter, their nest should 
be changed twice per week. It will give them an awful sight 
of exercise to fix up a new pen. This is why bundle corn 
fodder is good. I have noticed them work on a bundle of 
corn fodder for a full half a day working it into nest and eat- 
ing a large portion of it. 

Look after these things, my friends, and you will be well 
paid for all your labor, I assure, and your hogs will appre- 
ciate your kindness, and you will feel better yourself for hav- 
ing given your hogs a treat in a good clean bed. Let us cut 
out this old haphazard way of ' 'anything is good enough for 
a hog," for it is not, and if we give the matter a sensible 
thought we can see the profit. 



Practical Receipts 



I will here in this section give you the work of older and 
more experienced men than 1 am. These formulas and 
receipts have just been obtained for this grand book at a 
fancy price. We are giving them to you, my reader, for your 
consideration and your highest benefit. 

GREBS' "FARM" CONDITION POWDER 

Gentian Root, powdered 1 ounce 

Ginger Root, powdered 2 ounces 

Fenugreek Seed, powdered 8 ounces 

Anise Seed, powdered 2 ounces 

Saltpetre 1 ounce 

Bicarbonate of Soda 1 ounce 

Sulphur 2 ounces 

Ground Flaxseed 4 ounces 

Pass each. of the powdered drugs separately through a 
fine sieve, then mix all the ingredients thoroughly and sift 
again. Put up in packages of one pound or larger. 

Directions For Use: — In ordinary cases for horses and 
cows, one tablespoonful morning, noon and night, in ground 
feed or wet oats for five or six days; afterwards once a day or 
every other day as needed to keep the animal healthy and the 
coat in perfect condition. For hogs, give one-fourth as much 
as for horses. 



RV M. L. BOWERSOX < 3 

Ill cases of Founder, Hide Bound, Rheumatism, Hots and 
Black Tongue, give the powder as directed and administer 
the usual medical treatment for such cases. In cases of Pink 
Eye and Epizootic, increase the dose about one- fourth to one- 
half and add one teaspoon ful of powered lobelia herb, admin- 
istered three times a day, as directed above. In severe cases, 
burn old leather and exhausted tea leaves, allowing the ani- 
mal to inhale the fumes. In Poll Evil, Scratches, Grease 
Heel and Mange, cleanse the parts thoroughly with warm 
soap and water, dry well and apply carbolized Petrolatum. 
Give the powder as directed above in connection with the 
other treatment. 

GREB'S "FARM" VETERINARY OINTMENT 

Carbolic Acid 3 ounce 

Pine Tar 2 ounces 

Rosin 2 ounces 

Petrolatum 1 pound 

Melt the Rosin by gentle heat, add the Petrolatum, and 
when melted the Pine Tar. Continue the heat with stirring 
until all are thoroughly combined, remove from the fire and, 
while cooling, add the Carbolic Acid. Stir until cold. If the 
crystalized acid is used (which is best) it should be liquified 
by heat before adding. 

Put this up in four-ounce boxes (tin) to retail "at 25 cents. 
The darkest grade of petrolatum is used for this, which can 
be bought for five cents a pound in quantities. Use as any 
other salve wherever needed. If you purchase petrolatum in 
barrel lots, write Standard Oil Co., New York City, for prices. 



74 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

GREB'S "FARM" STOCK DIP 

Prepare the following mixtures: — 

No. 1 — Stock Solution of Caustic Potash — 

Caustic Potash 8 ounces 

Water 7 ounces 

Mix and dissolve. Let stand until before using 

No. 2 — Linseed Oil Soap — 

Raw Linseed Oil 7 ounces 

Stock Solution of Potash (No.l) 3 ounces 
Mix and stir for about fifteen minutes, or until it forms a 
perfect mixture. Allow to stand for a day or two in a mod- 
erately warm place, with occasional stirring, until a perfect 
soap is formed. 

No. 3 — Saponified Creasol — 

Linseed Oil Soap ( No. 2) 1 pound 
Crude Creasol 1 pound 

Mix thoroughly and allow to stand for a day or two with 
occasional stirring. 

No. 3 forms the base of the Dip. For use, a pound of 
this mixture is dissolved in 25 gallons of water and the ani- 
mal dipped or sprayed in the usual manner. Prepared as 
directed above this gives a perfectly clear mixture. If you 
want it to form a milky emulsion when mixed with water, add 
the creasol directly to the mixture of oil and potash solution 
(No. 2) as soon as the oil and potash solution are thoroughly 
mixed. 

Any desired color may be given to the product by the 
use of aniline dyes. For blue, use Methyl Blue: for red, 
Croceine Red: for yellow, Resorcin Yellow. 

Put this up in tin cans similar to those used for syrups, 
etc. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX <*> 

GREB'S '•FARM" HOG CHOLERA REMEDY 

Bicarbonate of Soda, G^ounces 

Common Salt, 4 ounces 

Sulphate of Soda, 4 ounces 

Hyposulphite of Soda, 6 ounces 

Sulphur, 4 ounces 

Willow Charcola, 4 ounces 

Black Antimony, 4 ounces 

Reduce all to a fine powder and mix intimately. Give a 

tablespoonful twice a day, in other feed, for each 100 pound 

weight of the animal. As a preventive medicine give a 

tablespoonful once a day to each animal. If any of the hogs 

become affected, remove them at once from the others and 

give the dose first mentioned. Keep the pens well cleaned 

and ventilated and feed regularly. 

GREB'S "FARM" STOCK FOOD 

Formula No. 1, costs three cents per pound 5 — 
Bicarbonate of Soda 
Cayenne Pepper 
Gentian Root, powdered 
Common Salt 
Oil Cake, powdered 

Mix thoroughly. 

Formula No. 2, costs six cents per pound — 

Ginger Root, powdered 1 ounce 

Licorice Root, powdered 1 ounce 

Anise Seed, powdered 1 ounce 

Epsom Salts, powdered 1 ounce 

Oil Meal 12 ounces 

Mix thoroughlv 



# 


ounce 


% 


ounce 


% 


ounce 


1 


ounce 


14 


ounces 



76 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

This product is best made by sifting the ingredients thor- 
oughly together. Put it up in packages of three and five 
pounds, also in wooden pails holding ten and thirty pounds. 

Directions For USE: — For horses, feed a tablespoonful 
with other feed twice a day. For cattle, feed one-half table- 
spoonful once or twice a day. 

A Special Suggestion for Advertising — Any of the 
large show printing houses will supply stock lithographs 
showing horses, cattle, etc., at a very reasonable price. 
These may be purchased and any desired printing placed on 
them at any printery, or may be done by the firm you buy from. 

GREB'S "FARM SPAVIN" REMEDY 
Oil Organium Y /z ounce 

Oil Spike ^ ounce 

Cotton Seed Oil % ounce 

Oil Cedar 1 dram 

Aqua Ammonia x /z ounce 

Alcohol \ ounces 

Mix thoroughly 

Directions For Use: — Shake the bottle well before 
using. Paint on with a brush or soft piece of cloth. Do not 
cover or bandage, as it will blister if this is done. Apply once 
a day for four days; then stop the treatment for four days; 
and repeat this until a cure is effected. 

Put this up in four ounce bottles to retail at one dollar. 
Do not offer this at a low price, as it is worth money and will 
bring any reasonable price you may see fit to charge for it. 
The originator of this formula has made plenty of money from 
it, and won a reputation for curing this trouble where every- 
thing else failed. This may be safely sold on a "No cure- 
No pay" basis. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



Xote — In bad cases the horse should be shod almost on 
the heel and the shoe run down to a thin plate on the toe of 
the spavined leg. 

GREETS "FARM" HEAVE REMEDY 



Rosin Weed, powdered 

Lobelia Herb, powdered 

Elecampane Root 

Sodium Sulphate 

Gentian Root, powdered 

Blood Root, powdered 

Tartar Emetic 

Conium Herb, powdered 

Alum 

Fenugreek Seed, pow T dered 

Linseed Meal 

Mix thoroughly 
Directions For Use: — Divide into two-dram powders 
and give one, night and morning, with the feed. Sprinkle 
all hay fed with water and dampen the feed. Give but a 
small quantity of the hay at a feed and avoid all dusty and 
mouldy hay. 

This should be put up in wide mouthed bottles or paste- 
board packages, a small measure holding exactly two drams 
given with each package. 

GREB'S "FARM" VETERINARY LINIMENT 



10 ounces 

10 ounces 

10 ounces 

10 ounces 

3 ounces 

3 ounces 

1 ounce 

3 ounces 

5 ounces 

ounces 

ounces 



o 

15 



Oil of Organium 


1 


ounce 


Oil of Hemlock 


1 


ounce 


Oil of Spike 


1 


ounce 


Oil of Sassafras 


Vt 


ounce 


Carbolic Acid (pure) 


% 


ounce 


Turpentine 


4 


ounces 


Raw Linseed Oil 


8 


ounces 


Gum Camphor 


% 


ounces 



78 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Dissolve the camphor in the turpentine, add the carbolic 
acid and mix well, then add the other ingredients, shaking 
well after each additron. 

Directions For Use: — For sprains, lameness, etc., the 
liniment should be thoroughly rubbed into the affected parts 
three times a day. For wounds or sores, apply the liniment 
with a soft cloth after having washed the parts well with 
warm water and a little castile soap. For stiff joints, use as 
directed for lameness. For ringbone, etc., apply freely, rub- 
bing it in well twice a day. For rheumatism, sprains, lame- 
ness, etc., in the human family, apply freely to the affected 
parts, rubbing it in well and heating well before the fire. 
In extreme cases of rheumatism, etc., cover with warm flannel 
after applying the liniment. Should it cause smarting, 
remove flannel at once. 

(iREB'S "FARM" GALL CURE 

Boric Acid 

Sulphur 

Powdered Indigo 

Lard or Petrolatum 

Carbolic Acid 

Iodoform 

Melt the carbolic acid with a small quantity of the lard 
or petrolatum, add the remainder of the lard or petrolatum, 
and when well softened, work in the other ingredients, all in 
the finest possible powder.' Mix to a smooth salve. If wanted 
firmer, a small quantity of beeswax or paraffin may be added, 
melting it with the lard or petrolatum. 

Directions For Use:— Wash the galls with warm water 

and pure soap (ivory or castile ); then apply the remedy freely- 

Put this up in three or four ounce tin boxes for sale, and 

price it the same as all standard gall cures. 



10 


ounces 


15 


ounces 


1 


ounce 


6/i pounds 


1 


ounce 


1 


dram 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX *!> 

GREB'S "farm" poultry toxic 

Pulverized Copperas (> ounces 

Capsicum 5 ounces 

Gentian 5 ounces 

Fenugreek 11 ounces 

Ginger G ounces 

Venetian Red 10 ounces 

Willow Charcoal 5 ounces 

Ground Shell 2 pounds 

Wheat Bran 1 1 pounds 

Linseed Meal 8 pounds 

Mix the first eight ingredients together thoroughly, and 

add the other two. 

Directions For Use: — Give to each twenty-four chick- 
ens about one quart or more per day in a shallow box. Keep 
it before them all the time; they will eat it whenever they like. 
When chickens that are laying refuse to eat it altogether, stop 
their regular feed for a day or so and they will then eat it. 

Put this up in pasteboard boxes, in three and five pound 
packages, and also in fifteen pound pails. 

TO INCREASE THE FLOW OF MILK IN COWS 

Give your cows three times a day, water slightly warm, 
slightly salted, in which bran has been stirred at the rate of 
one quart to two gallons of water. Vou will find if you have 
not tried this daily practice, that the cow will give twenty-five 
per cent more milk, and she will become so much attached to 
the diet that she will refuse to drink clear water unless very 
thirsty, but this mess she will drink at almost any time, and 
ask for more. The amount of this drink necessary is an ordi- 
nary water pail full each time, morning, noon and night. 



80 RAISING HOGS FOR-PROFIT 

Avoid giving cows "slops,'' as they are no more fit for the 
animal than they are for the human. 

HOW TO CURE DRUNKENNESS 

Sulphate of iron, five grains; peppermint water, eleven 
drams; spirit of nutmeg, one dram; one tablespoon ful twice 
a day. This preparation acts as a stimulant and tonic, and 
supplies'the place of the accustomed liquor. 

MEDICATED FOOD FOR HORSES AND CATTLE 

Take linseed cake and pulverize or grind it up in the 
shape of meal, and to every fifty pounds of this ingredient 
add ten pounds Indian meal; two pounds sulphuret of anti- 
mony; two pounds ground ginger; one and three-quarter 
pounds saltpetre, and two pounds powdered sulphur. Mix 
thoroughly together, put in neat boxes or packages for sale, 
or otherwise, as desired, and you will have an article equal in 
value to Thorley's Food, or almost any other preparation that 
can be got up for the purpose of fattening stock or curing dis- 
ease in every case when food or medicine can be of any use 
whatever. This article can be fed in any desired quantity, 
beginning with a few tablespoonfuls at a time, for a horse, 
mixing it with his grain, and in the same proportions to 
smaller animals, repeating the dose and increasing the quan- 
tity as the case may seem to require. 

TO DESTROY FLIES IN A ROOM 

Take half a teaspoonful of black pepper, one teaspoonful 
of brown sugar and one tablespoonful of crearn; mix them 
well together and place them in a room, on a plate, where the 
flies are troublesome and they will soon disappear. 



BY M L. BOWERSOX Rl 

TO CURE SICK HEADACHE 

Gather sumac leaves in the summer and spread them in 
the sun a few days to dry. Then powder them fine and 
smoke, morning and evening, for two weeks, also whenever 
there are symptoms of approaching headache. Use a new 
clay pipe. If these directions are adhered to this medicine 
will surely effect a permanent cure. 

TO CURE A CONSUMPTIVE COUGH 

Take three pints of rain water, half pound raisins chop- 
ped fine, three tablespoonfuls flax seed, sweeten to a syrup 
with honey, and boil down to a quart. Add three teaspoon 
fuls of extract of anise. Take a teaspoonful eight times a day. 

PREMIUM METHOD OF KEEPING HAMS, ETC. 

To four gallons of water, add eight pounds coarse salt, 
quarter ounce potash; tw T o ounces saltpetre; two pounds brown 
sugar. Boll together, skim when cold, put on the above 
quantity to one hundred pounds meat; hams to remain in • 
eight weeks; beef, three weeks. Let the hams dry several 
days before smoking. Meat of all kinds, salmon and other 
fish, lobsters, etc., may be preserved for years by a light ap- 
plication of Pyroligneous acid with a brush, sealing up in 
cans as usual. It imparts a splendid flavor to the meat, is 
very cheap, and an effectual preservative against loss. 

TRY THIS HOME-MADE COUGH REMEDY 

Costs little, but does the work quickly, or money refunded. 

Mix one pint of granulated sugar with half pint of warm 

Water and stir for two minutes. Put two and one-half ounces 



82 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

of Pinex (fifty cents' worth) in a pint bottle; then add the 
Sugar Syrup. Take a teaspoouful every one, two or three 
hours. 

You will find that this simple remedy takes hold of a 
cough more quickly than anything else you ever used. Usually 
ends a deep seated cough inside of twenty-four hours. Splendid, 
too, for whooping cough, chest pains, bronchitis and other 
throat troubles. It stimulates the appetite and is slightly lax- 
ative, which helps end a cough. 

This recipe makes more and better cough syrup than you 
could buy ready-made for $2.50. It keeps perfectly and tastes 
pleasant. 

Pinex is the most valuable concentrated compound of 
Norway white pine extract, and is rich in guiaicol and all the 
natural pine elements which are so healing to the membranes. 
Other preparations will not work in this formula. 

This plan of making cough syrup with Pinex and Sugar 
Syrup (or strained honey) has proven so popular throughout 
the United States and Canada that it is often imitated. But 
the old successful formula has never been equaled. 

A guarantee of absolute satisfaction, or money refunded, 
goes with this recipe. Your druggist has Pinex or will get it 
for you. 

TO MAKE CUCUMBER VINES BEAR FIVE CROPS 

When a cucumber is taken from the vine let it be cut 
with a knife, leaving about the eighth of an inch of the cu- 
cumber on the stem, then slit the stem with a knife from its 
end to the vine leaving a small portion of the cucumber on 
each division, and on each separate slit there will be a new 
cucumber as large as the first. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 

BLOOD MAKER AXD PURIFIER 

Mix half an ounce sulphate of manganese with one pint 
water. Dose, a wineglassful three times a day. This can be 
used in the place of iron tonic, or in connection with it. 

NERVOUS HEADACHE 

Extract hyocymus five grains, pulverized camphor five 
grains: mix. Make four pills, one to be taken when the pain 
is most severe in nervous headache. Or three drops tincture 
nux-vomica in a spoonful of water, two or three times a day. 

FELONS 

One tablespoonful of red lead and one tablespoon ful of 
castile soap, mix them with as much weak lye as will make 
it soft enough to spread like a salve, and apply it on the first 
appearance of the felon, and it will cure in ten or twelve days. 

To MAKE HEXS LAV THE WHOLE YEAR 

(jive each hen half an ounce of fresh meat every day, 
and mix a small amount of red pepper with their food during 
the winter. Give them plenty of grain, water, gravel and 
lime and allow no cocks to run with them. 

TO KEEP APPLES FRESH AXD SOUND ALL WINTER 

I haev discovered a superior way of preserving apples 
until spring. By it any apple in good condition when packed 
will be equally good when unpacked, and even those rotting 
because not in good condition when put away will not injure 
others. Take fine sawdust — preferably that made by a cir- 
cular saw from well seasoned hardwood — and place a thick 
layer on bottom of barrel. Then place a layer of apples — not 
close together and not close to staves of the barrel. Put saw- 



84 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

dust liberally over and around, and proceed until a bushel 
and a half (or less) are so packed in each barrel. They are 
to be kept in a cool place. I kept some in an open garret, 
the thermometer for a week ranged close to zero. No bruised 
or mellow apples will be preserved, but they will not commu- 
nicate rot to their companions. There is money in this, 
applied to choice apples. 

ART OF RAT KILLING WITHOUT TRAPS OR POISON 

Take common sponge, dried, cut into small pieces, soak 
in lard, melted tallow or meat gravy. Place these pieces 
within easy access to the rats. They will eat greedily, and 
the moisture of the stomach will cause the pieces to swell and 
kill the rat. Water may be placed within easy reach, and 
will hasten results by expanding the sponge. 

HOW TO MAKE OLD ORCHARDS NEW 

KAINITE-OR TREE MEDICINE 

It is very well known that the reason why peach, apple, 
quince and pear orchards gradually grow poorer and poorer 
until they cease to produce at all, is because the potash is 
exhausted from the soil by the plant. This potash must be 
restored, and the most effective way to do it is to use the fol- 
lowing compound, discovered by a distinguished German 
chemist: Thirty parts of sulphate of potash; fifteen parts sul- 
phate of magnesia; thirty-five parts salt: fifteen parts gypsum, 

For an old reliable Worm Remedy to rid worms in hogs, 
address P. S. Burch & Co., 

177 Illinois Street, Chicago, 111. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



85 



For a Louse Killer Disinfectant, Cleanser, use Minor's 
Fluid. Manufactured by \V. K. Minor <S: Co., 

19 S. Water Street, Cleveland, Ohio 

All the above recipes and remedies are good, and some 
of these recipes have been sold for more than five time 
the price of the book. Some of them the writer has paid good 
big money for, they are put in this book for your use and 
best judgment, and are bonafide. 




Hog Lots — Full Description 



The above picture show the arrangement of hog lots on 
this place. The shanty feed houses at the north end of lots, 
a drive-way leading along the north end, their sleeping quar- 
ters are on the south end -could not get the fftll view. 
What is aimed at in this is to show that the houses or shelter 
at the feeding end of lot are very cheaply constructed, but 
answer the purpose to allow them to get a square meal when 
the snow and rain is coming down. You will notice the dif- 
ferent positions of the hogs in these lots. Some are on their 
way toward their sleeping quarters; some have a little root- 
ing to do along the line before they go to their nest; you will 
notice the little fellows are also stirring around. There is no 
better arrangement, to my notion, for hogs. Water fountains 
can be kept during the summer where they can get their 
water at will. There are twelve lots, and they lack quite a 
good bit of equipping — one qarter of an acre of ground, and 
I have had as high as seventy-five head comfortably housed 
and cared for in winter in these lots. You will notice the lots 



88 RAISING HoGS FOR PROFIT 

are built on slightly sloping: land. A heavy rain generally 
cleans them up, carrying it south, where it goes down over a 
meadow, and this meadow T affords abundance of pasture if 
the hogs are not allowed to root it up, and they are not allowed 
to plow around here, that is sure. The fences are wire so 
that one can see the hogs and notice their doings. This is a 
great advantage, for you can see whether your hogs are active 
or not, and also when a sow show 7 s signs of being in heat. I 
find that this arrangement is No. 1, and any one taking this 
plan, and constructing his houses properly, will find it very 
profitable for all purposes; feeding out a bunch of hogs, for 
keeping brood sows and male hogs I consider it very practical, 
up-to-date. With this arrangement their nests are generally 
in good condition, with much less care than otherwise. Dur- 
ing the early part of the spring they get muddy, of course. 
But where the hogs are not allowed to dig them up constantly 
they are generally in good shape. The corn cobs during the 
spring and fall seasons can be raked up ; hauled out or burned 
right in the lots, w T hich should be done at least each spring 
and fall, of course. Our hogs here are generally housed dur- 
ing the severest winter weather to a large extent; yet we have 
hogs in these lots the year around and find them doing equally 
as well, if not better, than those housed, and with much less 
care. True, it is not pleasant to go along the line with a 
slop cart full of slop when the wind blows at the rate of sixty 
miles an hour and the thermometer hangs along zero, but it 
never takes long, and a little fresh air generally does the 






I 



BY M. L. BOWEKSOX 89 

farmer good; so this is no drawback. The wire fences are of 
frny good hog fence. Some have barbs on top, some have 
not; bnt all have barb wire at bottom to keep the hogs from 
raising them up. Line posts should not be placed more than 
sixteen feet apart, for you can hardly stretch such a short 
length of heavy wire as tight as it should be unless you have 
extra good end posts well braced. Will leave such things to 
the reader's good judgment, with best wishes to one and all. 



Does It Pay to Raise Pure Bred Hogs? 



It certainly does. While it depends largely upon the care 
and management, the same is true with a scrub common 
grade hog. Some people can make a hog with very little 
pureness about it; others cannot make anything out of the 
best blood. It certainly is largely due to not knowing how; 
this book will surely remedy all this trouble, while it takes 
care and work to raise and sell hogs. What have we got with- 
out work and care? Simply nothing. Any one knows that 
much; then why not put time, care and labor on the hog? 
There certainly is not anything on the farm that pays better 
than the brood sow properly cared for. Why then the pure 
breed? Well, that is also a plain matter. Where you have 
the pure breed of the best that money will buy, you have two 
chances to make money, where the other fellow with the 
common stock has but one. You have better quality of meat; 
they will grow better; they take less feed; they have a nicer 
appearance; you will take more interest in them; your neigh- 
bors will watch them closer, and the next thing you know 






BY M. L. BOWERSOX M 

you will have a chance to sell a pig or two at nearly double 
the price that you would receive if you did not have a pure 
bred hog; then when it coine to the straight market you are 
way ahead. So it certainly pays to raise pure bred hogs, and 
the best is the cheapest always. Make your selection with 
the greatest care: use good judgment; do not over nor under- 
feed: keep your eye on your hog and you are bound to make 
money easier than with anything else you can put your hands 
to. Do not be afraid to go after the best pure bred hag that 
money can buy. We need more active hog breeders. Yes, 
we need them by the score. Do not be afraid to invest in the 
hog. Note the following pages. 



Present and Future Outlook For Hog 

Business 



There never was a time when the farmer had a greater 
harvest before them in the hog line than just now and for 
years to come. There always was more money in the hog 
than anything else on the farm, even as to prices, if properly 
handled; and today the United States is so completely in the 
rear with hogs that it will take at least ten years to catch 
up to where they should be. There never was a better 
demand for pork than just now. Look after the statistics 
and see where we are in the pork business, and you will read- 
ily see that we need more active hog breeders. Look at the 
following census: 

This nation eats pork. Census bureau finds 36,483,000 
hogs devoured annually — Washington, I). C, Feb. 21, 1911. 

"Pork eaters" is a term which may be rightfully applied 
to the people of the United States. If the figures just made, 
published by the Census Bureau for the year 1909, may be 
taken as a basis, the figures show that during the year 4,483,- 
000 more hogs were killed in this country for food purposes 
than all other animals combined, including beeves, calves, 
sheep, lambs, goats, kids, etc. During the year 1909. 36,443,000 



94 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



hogs were killed for food purposes and 31,960,000 of all other 
animals slaughtered in slaughter houses and meat packing 
establishments, giving a total of 68,403,000 for the year. 
These figures should be far higher to be correct. 

Then does it pay to raise hogs and raise them right, and 
the right kind ? It certainly does. Let us not be neglectful 
in this respect, and look after our interest, profit and welfare 
more than we have done in the past and w T e will be a far hap- 
pier farmer than without the hog for a staff. 

You may call the writer of these lines a crank on hogs, if 
you like, but what I have written are facts from personal ex- 
perience, and you can practice them to your highest profit if 
you but make a slight effort. The great fault with too many 
of us is we do not want to venture — the disease of hogs stares 
us in the face. This is true; but ' 'nothing ventured is noth- 
ing gained"; and with this book and good judgment you have 
very little risk to run, if any. I find with my breed of hogs 
and my manner of care, I am at no risk whatever as far as 
diseases are concerned. The great point is, we must get out 
of this old rut and not think because a hog has the name hog 
she or he should have treatment and food according to the 
name; and when we get over this and feed proper food, and 
regularly, and give our hogs better attention, we risk very 
little in regard to diseases. Anything that is worth doing at 
all is worth doing right, and if we keep this in mind during 
our life's journey, and practice it, it will lead us to a higher 
and more noble plane of life. 

This book may go into the hands of a man who thinks 
he knows more than the writer ever heard of. Well, as to 
that, my brother. 1 will say, let your good neighbor know of 
your knowledge; it will do you both good. I admit I do not 






BY M. L. HOWKRSOX 



*>5 



know it all, but I am anxious to let my fellow-man know 
what little 1 do know; and by means of these little experiences 
of mine I sincerely trust I may be able to help some one that 
knows less; not because he is ignorant, simply because he 
did not have the chance I did; and by putting what little I 
know before them in this book it will enable them to learn; 
and we never get done learning, and experience is the best 
of teachers. Although it is dear sometimes, we cannot help 
but appreciate it, and we should practice our knowledge and 
learn more — especially about the hog. 




Buying Stock At Fairs 



Now, my reader, I do not wish lobe misunderstood about 
this. These agricultural societies are all right, and have done 
a wonderful sight of good; but we must be cautious about 
buying a stuffed pig at the fairs. They must be fed heavy in 
order to show them and get the price; and so often the farm- 
er buys one for a breeder and the result is he has not what he 
bought, for it was over-fed and will not make a breeder; often 
break down in the male sex, and the sows the same and 
hard to get in pig. So we should be very careful along this 
line. I get so many complaints of this kind from all over our 
land that they bought x^igs here and there at a certain fair 
and their pigs went back on them, and want to know what to 
do. Well, there is very little to do, but be more careful. 
By far, better buy your pigs from a reliable breeder by mail 
order and you can avoid all this trouble, at least in a large 
measure. 



Mail Order 



Some people most certainly think that the Mail ( )rder is 
dangerous. It is the cheapest and safest way to get your 
breeding stock. You have a right to find out whether the 
breeder of any breed you may wish to buy is responsible; 
then you are perfectly safe in this respect. Then the Money 
Order business is perfectly safe now-a-days, and the breeders 
guarantee safe arrival to any point, and your money is just 
as safe by mail as if you were buying a pound of sugar. 
Certainly, if we can buy what we want and need at home, 
that is the place to buy; but if we cannot, Mail Order now-a 
days is just the same and no risk whatever. So we have no 
excuse for not having the best that money can buy. 

Whether at home or by mail, let us look after these 
things closer and get after that best hog for our farm and 
farms if we do have to get them by Mail Order. Some farmers 
have an idea that if they send money by mail it will be 
gone and no value received. A draft can be obtained from 
your bank: your own check can be sent; a postoffice money 
order is all right; an express order is all right — all are safe, 
and if not deliverad or lost you get your money back. 



98 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



So in this great country of ours today, with all prosperity 
reigning and all conveniences at our right hand and at our 
left, we have no excuse for not reaching out and helping our- 
selves with the best at a small cost to begin with. And I am 
sure life is too short to waste precious time and opportunity; 
so let us start right now and make life worth living for our- 
selves and others around us. Many a helping hand we can 
lend to this country of ours if we only try, and no better plan 
than our article for investment can be found for the farmer; 
then that little pig and that big pig. 

Wake up, thou that sleepest, and get a pig. 




Misjudged 



This is a subject that is of great importance to the custo- 
mer and breeder. So often there is a misunderstanding be- 
tween these two parties. Here is a good place to keep calm 
and preserve you tempers, and act them out when you have a 
good place all to yourself. I have often wondered what 
the breeder of thoroughbred or pure-bred stock and his cus- 
tomer would do if they could or would meet face to face 
after several months of fussing and chewing the rag and call- 
ing each other pet names through the mail. Well, in a large 
measure, both sides would wilt right down and each one do 
their sociable part. Then why not do it in the first place? 
Well, it is a misunderstanding — misjudging one another. 

Say for instance, here is a man in New York correspond- 
ing with a man in the Western States in regard to some new 
stock. This may be poultty, cattle, hogs or sheep. They 
strike a bargain: the customer sends a check; the breeder is 
very busy, and of course the check is received, but he does 
not report as prompt as he should and acknowledge the receipt 
of same; the customer gets his spunk up and writes this 
breeder an insulting, mean letter; the breeder, meaning things 
all right and honest in his way, does not think of his fault, 
takes time to give this fellow a scoring in return. Here is a 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 101 

fire kindled. In my judgment, they had better quit the trade 
right here and the breeder return the cheque, or what may 
be receipted in the bagain. 

Brother breeders and customers, let us be more careful 
about this and not too hasty. Personally, I used to get my 
"dutch" up, for it i^ hard for a man that does his level best to 
do what is right to have a customer put him down as a fraud or 
a thief before he knows. Hut far better, try and be calm on 
both sides, and if the acknowledgement of an order does not 
come marked received promptly, and there is just reason for 
calling the breeder's attention to it, let us do it in the right, 
spirit — not with our fighting clothes on; neither party gains 
anything by this hasty contention. 

Same is true with pedigrees and records. The breeder, 
as a rule, has his books all in line and keeps a record of his 
sales and what is required of him in record pedigrees, and so 
on; then too often this is depended on, and left to drag along, 
thinking, "Well, I will get that man's pedigree out some other 
time — I am busy now/' So time goes on, and the other fellow . 
gets up his "snap/' Well, we should by all means be prompt 
in these matters; and we can be if we just make up our minds 
to it, and what a lot of worry, fuss and trouble we can save 

True, here is a customer that has been severely cheated 
and defrauded by a breeder. He quits him and takes up a 
new man; then if this new man makes the least error, he gets 
afire, and if the fire is returned, there will be two fires. Better 
let one fire be enough and send out a few good kind words 
and reason and apply this to the fire, and you will find that 
in ninety-nine cases out of every one hundred there will be 
peace; for while the other fellow is scrapping and you do 



102 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

not scrap with him, there will peace. This is a fact, on both 
sides, and should be avoided. "Well, then," you may say, 
"stop ordering by mail and stop this fuss." Oh, no; you are 
just as likely to have trouble in a face-to-face deal as by 
mail order; it is that temper of ours we want to control, on 
either side, and have more confidence in each other and not 
pass judgment rashly, until we are sure on both sides that we 
are right and the other fellow needs a piece of our mind. 
This is good in the right way and at the right time. 

Well, this puts me in mind of the family that made a 
statement, "My husband and I never have any words — all 
peace." We find some few men that would venture to say 
the same at times. We have some breeders that claim all 
customers are pleased, in their advertisements. They must not 
have been in business very long. It is much "self" about 
these statements. Where a man starts out in any public bus- 
iness, or has any dealings with his fellow-men, and he can 
truthfully say that he has had no misunderstanding or words 
with anyone, such a man is perfect and this old world of ours 
is no place for him and he had better move. 

My kind reader, let us be honest in this matter; no one 
is clear of mistakes. We often do things we should not. 
We really do not do it to be mean, or purposely; it is an error; 
often because we are too apt to be hasty. It does not pay to 
class ourselves perfect; we can all learn the longest day we 
live. Hut if we do make a mistake, let us be honest and own 
up to it and rectify it as much as possible, and not make the 
same mistake again. Here is a man who made a statement 



BY M. L. BOWKRSOX !<>.*> 

that his stuff is perfect. Now we all know that the perfect 
hog, cow, sheep, or anything else in this world, does not exist. 
We can have it as near perfect as anything in its line, but we 
should not be too strong on that part, we may find some one 
that is ahead of us. It is well aud right for everybody to 
think he has the best, or good enough for him to make his 
stock known as such; but both parties — proprietor and custo- 
mer—should be very careful about this judging business. 
Just the other day I heard a remark that to me was a broad 
lesson. A certain man, or this man or the other fellow that 
made the statement, came from a larger town to our town, 
here in a store where there was planning work on exhibition 
bath tubs, bath room and hot water supplies of all kinds. 
Well, he was talking to the proprietors and stating what prices 
he had from different plumbers in his town, or city. But 
wound up, while he himself lived in that town, by making 
the statement that "there was not an honest man in that town 
in the plumbing business, nor any other.' 1 Such talk puts 
me also in mind of the man that made the remark that "he 
wished he owned the whole world and nobody lived in it but 
himself; wouldn't he have a jolly time of it." Well, there 
are people that allow themselves to. have a greedy, selfish dis- 
position. 

Some one of my readers may say, "What has this to do 
with the hog for profit?" We need these things. If I had a 
hog that did not behave any better than some of our race, I 
certainly would not count that porker very profitable, and 
soon make an opening for him to the pork barrel. Let us try 
our level best not to misunderstand each other so much, and 
by all means try and see under what difficult circumstances 



104 RAISING HCGS FOR PROFIT 

the fellow we are apt to judge is laboring. It has been my 
aim in this book to bring us to a higher plane of thought 
and to be more ready to consider hasty actions, and this will 
bring us to a higher plane in our hcg business for profit. 

Here are two people to make this part more plain— the 
breeder and the farmer customer. The farmer orders a pig or 
hog. The breeder is anxious to sell — likes money, so he puts 
the price up, and tries to put the hog up in quality to the 
price; the deal is made; when the farmer gets the hog there is 
a fuss, if he knows a good hog when he sees it; then the 
breeder hangs on to the money and the customer hangs on to 
him, and the next thing they both know they have got more 
trouble than they can handle. To the breeder of all breeds 
of hogs in the pure-brad line, when you have such trouble 
make short business of it. Tell your party to return the hog 
and get his money back. The same is true when a breeder 
ships a No. 1 hog or pig to a customer who does not know 
a good hog when he sees one, and allows his neighbors, or 
so-called or termed friends, to interfere and make him sore, 
then he jumps the breeder and tries to empty out some one 
else's talk on the innocent man. This is the other side. 
And to the man who cannot use his own judgment and allows 
everybody to dictate to him, had better not enter in public 
purchase, for he is wrong when he allows any one to interfere, 
and no one should interfere. This is a great drawback in the 
hog business. We must go away from home to buy and we 
cannot spend the money to go personally and see, so we order 
by mail, which is safe and right. But now, my good reader, 
be your own judge when you buy anything; do not let your 









BY M. L. BOWERSOX 105 

neighbors interfere, unless they give you good advice; take it, 
of course, but do not follow them too far. Many a young in- 
dustrious man has been discouraged by allowing his neighbors 
or friends to dictate and tell him he paid too much for so or 
so, and that man he got so and so of was a rascal and the 
devil would get him alive, and so on; nothing too strong 
against that poor, honest breeder that really lost money in the 
deal, and this customer that allows such business is certainly 
the loser: while, on the other hand, if he would speak up and 
give such people to understand that he had spent his money 
and that he purposed to get it back by giving his purchase a 
fair test at least. This is what I call hogs for profit in a large 
measure; for if you permit some one to make you blue, he 
becomes blue with you: on the other hand, if you are firm, 
you will soon have him for a customer and a friend, the fact, 
as a rule, is and I am sure. I have had the misfortune, rath 
er than the pleasure, to see and meet these things face to face, 
and the fellow who tries to discourage the man that makes a 
start toward better hogs, and finds fault when he gets them, 
ninety-nine cases out of every one hundred this fellow does it 
out of pure jealousy or enmity, because he was too slow to 
make the start, and now glories in interfering. 

Reader, I fully trust you will profit by this and reach out 
for better stock, especially the hog, and allow no interference. 
Let you and your beeder make the deal—you and him alone. 
If you cannot agree, do not deal any more: look after some 
one else; do not stop the business, but in all cases let the 
breeder, buyer and seller — both sides — use good judgment and 
be fair with one another. I can hardly leave this subject 



106 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

when I think of this great country of ours, with all its grand 
privileges for the hog, then in my own personal experience, 
personally know that ninety-nine out of every one hundred 
cases where there is trouble between the breeder and his cus- 
tomer, there has been interference by an outsider. Hundreds 
and thousands of active men have been allowing themselves 
to be driven back from the right road to success with hogs. 

I did not care to approach this subject; but now, that I 
am at it, 1 will give you full measure. This has been our 
great drawback in the pure-bred hog business — allowing 
dictators to discourage us. Why, I was called crazy when I 
paid forty-five dollars for a pair of pigs. I told that fellow 
that a man has to become a fool sometimes to get wise. He 
was my first customer; today he is breeding and raising hogs 
for me. Let us not be so easily led against our own opinions. 
Take the best hog that money can buy and stay with it, under 
careful watch and care, and you have the most profitable 
thing on the farm — the hog, the money maker, the mortgage 
lifter, the pride of the flock. I know whereof I speak, I have 
seen all this; and to the young, especially, as their most 
sincere friend, take the hog business in its highest standard, 
care and all combined, and stay with it up or down in price. 
1 may not be with you many more years in the active breed- 
ing business, for I certainly have had my share all through 
and seen many discouraging things, and also encouraging. 
There never was such a cloudy day but that the beautiful sun 
came along and made all smiles and sunshine. Such is the 
pleasure of the active hog-man, more smile and sunshine; for 
it is the pure-bred hog of the highest type that helps the purse 
more than any one thing on the farm, and I fully trust that 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



i<>; 



in this, my most earnest effort to bring a work before yov in 
this book, that will help you along an easy path with the hog, 
for this book will give you a guide that I could not buy, but 
had to learn and often had to pay dear for it. And while I 
have been an active breeder along tow wad thirty years, I 
am still in the business as manager of the M. L. Bowersox 
O. I. C. Swine Breeding Co., and will here state that anything 
in this book pertaining to any questions on hog that is not 
fully understood, and the question is asked within reason, 1 
will answer it, personally, to any of my readers on receipt of 
sstamp for same and addressed envelope. 







When Shall We Market Our Hogs For 

Profit? . 



This is a question on the same line as "What Is the Prop- 
er Time to Wean Pigs." The Western man as well as the 
Eastern man and the Middle States man are all in one boat 
in this respect. Where hogs are raised for pork only and in 
large numbers, this is a question that largely depends upon 
judgment, and a splendid rule is to watch all the markets 
closely and make all the inquiries possible from all points of 
market. This is very important. Do not depend upon your 
dealer's opinion, he may advise you to his own profit; they 
often do get the very best quotation as to market, and possibly 
up or down price, whether it is likely to continue up or down 
long; then watch your flock of porkers close and use good 
judgment as to whether you have them ready for the market for 
profit, if you cut loose at the price. When you wish to sell, 
prices can always be obtained from our commission men at 
St. Louis, Chicago and Eastern yards. These commission 
men can generally be relied on for the markets, and it is well 
for the farmer to become acquainted with these m£h and be on 
the lookout. If your bunch of hogs is not nice and even, 
better separate them and push them in the rear, along with 
more tempting feed and better care than those that are ahead. 



BY M. L. BOWKRSOX 109 

This is a very important feature, to have a nice even bunch 
of hogs to get the top price. If your home buyer does not pay 
the price, get several other hog men to join you and sell direct 
to the commission men and you will have but one profit taken 
of! in this. There are too many unconcerned feeders that do 
not post themselves in prices. I would urge that we look 
after this closer. And another grand mistake is made in rush- 
ing to the market when it is glutted. This is very plain that 
we are losing out if we allow ourselves to get over anxious 
and make a rush for the early market. This has been a 
scheme of the buyers to howl about over-stocked market so 
as to get the farmer stirred to rush his hogs to the market. 
Better watch this part. If you cannot get in on the early high 
price, better hold on in calmness and feed more carefully; 
you will not lose as much as if you rush in the high mark of 
down market, to whieh often the farmer makes a mistake in 
this, when if he would just hold back a little he would be the 
gainer. Xow-a-days it never takes long for the packers long 
to clean up the country; then up is the game. A very good - 
plan to handle hogs for the highest profit is to have them 
coming right on about the year around and push them along 
and be prepared for that purpose; then if one batch goes a 
little below the desired mark, the next may go away up. 
There is no profit with good stock to keep a spring pig over 
until it is a year and a half old. If you have a pig or hog that 
will not produce a hog or make a hog at eight or twelve 
months old, better change stock; there is no profit in holding 
hogs over for age to fatten them out, it is time and money 
wasted- -push them right along from pig up, this makes your 
profit. The quicker you can rush a bunch up to the market 
point the more profit you will realize. Never be too much in a 




C/3 



ta 



(/) 



fe 



w 



x 



BY M. L. ROWHRSOX 111 

hurry when you feed your hogs, better spend a little time 
watching them, to see that they all eat and eat right; some 
that are back in flesh and activity, by all means take them 
separately and give them extra care. The man now-a-days 
who has but few to sell, should feed out often, better butcher 
and sell them in sausages, lard, puddings, hams, shoulders and 
side meat than to be cut out of the price because he only has a 
few and their hair does not lay just right, as the butcher might 
say, or it may be a nice clean stag, or a nice clean sow that 
has had several litters of pigs; well, he will tell you its an old 
slobby sow all bags; the old stag, as he may call a two-year- 
old, cut the price for you, says he would rather not buy them; 
at the time when he has cut the price to you they go for 
first-class with him. Look after this; better butcher them 
yourself; the butcher and the middle-man now-a-days get 
too much of the farmer's money. You can see this part 
plainly. Where a man buys fat hogs he does not need to buy 
very many until he has plenty of time to loaf around and 
watch the farmers' stock. We farmers should be more on our. 
guard. As a rule, the ordinary farmer yes, 1 am sorry to 
say, the vast majority of farmers — do not give the hog busi- 
ness half the attention they should for their highest profit. 
My kind reader and friend, let me ask you to do yourself a 
great favor: Read this book; study it; practice it; select a 
good brood sow, give her the best of care; push the pigs along 
as instructed; watch the markets and report the results to me. 
I shall appreciate this favor from readers most highly. Let 
us look more closely after our hogs for profit. 



Sketches of Vast Importance 



First. Concerning- the time of sow in bearing pigs, from 
breeding- time to farrowing time, the best count on this is six- 
teen weeks. A yearling or two-year-old sow will, as a rule, 
come due to farrow to the day— sixteen weeks, the number 
of days are 110, 131 and 113; older sows, according to age, 
113 to 117 days. Great care and attention should be paid to 
this and have your sows in the proper place at least two weeks 
ahead of farrowing time, so they become acquainted with their 
surroundings and know how to act. There are cases where 
a tow needs attention in farrowing and there are forceps and 
instructions how to use them, so it is useless for me to enter 
into this subject; but it is a wise plan for every hog breeder 
to have one of these forceps on hand in case of emergency, 
see your veterinary about this, where to get them, he will be 
glad to inform you. A pig farrowed backward is unnatural 
and hard to deliver. Great care should be taken not to pull 
to hard on the hind legs, and only when the sow labors assist 
her. Seldom a forcep is needed where a pig comes backward, 
but a pig farrowed backwards should be delivered as soon as 
possible; the sow should be assisted by gently pulling when 
she labors in a somewhat down away from the tail position, 
Some have the idea that after-birth, or pig- cleaning from a 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 1 13 

litter, if eaten by a sow hurts her, or is inclined to cause her 
to eat her young. Neither of these cases are true: it does not 
hurt her, nor does it create an appetite for pigs; but if re- 
moved, it will prevent her, in a large measure, from stirring 
her nest all up side down to find every scrap of it; so I prerer 
removing it, or as much as possible. We must watch all 
points for profit. It will pay every time to use a pure-bred 
boar, though the price may be a few dollars more. Do not 
overlook the important feature of training your young boars to 
be driven and handled. A vicious boar is not a pleasant thing 
to contend with; if properly handled and trained to drive to 
different places when young much trouble, care and time can 
be saved. 

"A streak of lean and a streak of fat" is what is in 
demand now-a-days. 'Breed for it, then feed for it and you 
will be sure to obtain it and your pork will be in the highest 
demand. The old razor-back hog has been driven from the 
pig kingdom, and the lard tub of the oily nature will have to 
follow; feed for it, solid lard is what is wanted. We can get 
out of the hog just what we want if we breed and feed for it. 
Feed your boar more oats and bran ; cut off the fat and build 
vigor and strength; look after his welfare, he is half the herd. 
Do not forget that the hog can eat grass, roots, cabbage, 
beets and the like, and they will thank you if you favor them 
with such things if confined. It is all right to turn corn into 
pork, but not into mere oil instead of pork and lard. Watch 
this for profit. 

It was a profitable sow that presented her owner with 
seventy-seven little pigs in five litters. 

A brood sow can be kept on about the same amount of 
food that it costs to winter a shoat. 

Two litters a year is good. Practice and breed for the 
time vour market demands for profit. 



114 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



If lice are suspected, use grease before juniors arrive. 
Lard and kerosene two parts lard, one kerosene, placed 
around the root of the tail, around the ears, on the forehead 
and around the eyes is claimed by some authorities as 
sufficient to kill the lice; for they claim a hog-louse cannot 
live if they cannot get to the tail and the eyes. No harm in 
testing this out; 1 know a hog-loUvSe cannot stand lard and 
kerosene mixture. 

Give oats to the young pigs; feed up the runt for a roaster. 

Manage to have some pig-s to sell all the time; they bring; 
in good results. 

Avoid warm food in winter. They seem to relish it at 
first, but will soon hump up their back and shiver. Warm or 
boiled food too extensively used is an injury, especially to 
stock hogs that you want to keep as breeders; it makes their 
teeth soft. Ground food is all right, but in fattening it is ad- 
vocated, on good authority, that it should be fed dry, to cause 
them to produce saliva in their mouth and mix it with their 
food, which aids digestion, where if fed with slop they gulp 
it down and the saliva has no chance to form and mix with 
the food. 

The curry comb and brush are enjoyed by the hog, espe- 
cially the brood boar, and it will do them good. 

Do not give the hog the sunnyside of a wire fence for 
shelter; neither put them in a 4x6 pen. A good, roomy 
shelter pays. 

A cold rain on the pig's back will make him fat. Nit. 

A pig does not eat merely to live; he wants to become 
nice and fat and feel good. 



BY M. L. ROWKRSOX 115 

Keep the slop barrel and slop buckets clean, scald them 
out, scrub them, place them in the sun to dry. 

We cannot grant a hog's ambition to possess the whole 
earth, but we can profitably give him a portion of the soil. 

Hogs are very fond of sugar beets. 

Pigs consume two pounds of water with every pound of 
corn, if they can obtain the water; then why not let them 
have it? It is cheap, and will do them good. 

Give the boy a pig; he wants a chance; and when he is 
a man he will stay on the farm in ninety-nine cases in a 
hundred. Take him in as a partner; let him have a chance 
and he will stay with you the farm. 

Xice, clean clover hay dumped in the fattening pen — a 
daily bundle— will aid digestion and urge them along. 

There is nothing more convenient than success; but even 
success can be improved upon. 

Where hogs and pigs are slopped and ear-corn fed as a 
grain, which generally is the case, and is in my experience - 
the best, for in the slop you can mix at any time such medi- 
cines or powders as you may wish to feed which is very con- 
venient; but do not go along the line and throw corn in first, 
you will only create a howl, and it is not the proper method. 
Fix up your slop; then when they are slopped they will take 
time to eating their corn and start the saliva and mix it with 
their food; while, on the other hand, if corn is fed first they 
will eat it greedily, looking for slop, and they will often have 
their mouths full of corn and gulp it down with the slop n< t 
being cracked at all. This is all wrong and wasteful and will 
not do them any good. Slop first; then feed corn for profit, 
and just what they will eat up clean from one meal to another 



116 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Feed the pig to stop the squeal, but allow him to grunt. 

The hog is a machine to convert golden corn into golden 
coin. 

Put the hog on the platform scale occasionally: you will 
learn something. Watch the markets. 

Profit comes not in how little we can keep the pig on, 
but how much we can get him to eat, of a balanced ration, 
and make a hog out of him. 

There is no profit in speeding sows to fatten. 

If you have a surplus of pigs, market them for roasters. 
City people will be glad to get them at fair prices. Look after 
this. 

A dry bed and a dry shed is what the hog wants. 

A sqaealy pig is cold, hungry or uncomfortable. Look 
after his wants: it will pay you. 

Don't let your hogs drink dirty, filthy water. 

Don't castrate pigs when cholera is in the neighborhood. 

Don't bring home cholera from the fairs and stockyards. 

Don't wait until your hogs are all dead before doing 
something. 

Don't fail to disinfect all parts where sick hogs have 
been . 

A close watch and a little time spent among the hogs is 
of great value and profit. 

( >ften a farmer wants to take a sow away to breed. A 
crate and a spring wagon is the proper thing where the dis- 
tance is not too great. The practice of leading the hog with 
a rope around one hind leg is a bad thing. Better make a 
saddle harness, or rather a lead or driving hog harness: place 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 



117 



the end of a rope around her neck against the shoulder — not 
too tight to choice her; tie it to the main rope on top of her 
neck so it will not draw shut: then take the rope around back 
of her for the legs, allowing it to come around and meet the 
rope going back from the neck, allowing the proper distance 
between the two rings around the sow: tie a knot in this 
where the ring come up back of her shoulders, and you have 
her in harness and can be driven with ease. A rope on the 
hind leg is cruel and dangerous. (Vive this a test for a short 
distance and see how it works. 




Chicken-Eating Hog 



This is a subject we hear a great deal about. It has 
been the case, seemingly, from early history. I must truth- 
fully say that in all my experience I had very little conten- 
tion along this line with any of my own hogs. But being in 
the breeding business, I am obliged to hold brood sows here 
until in heat, and in this line 1 have learned a great deal to 
the chickens' sorrow. My chickens and my hogs are friends 
and I pay very little attention to them at all if amongst the 
hogs. They often lay eggs in the hog nests and, of course, 
in this case the fellow that finds or gets the egg first is the 
owner, and that generally is the hog. But an egg does not 
hurt a hog; on the other hand it is good medicine. Rather 
expensive, but raw eggs in slop to the brood sow in case of 
scours in pigs generally checks it; and for a hog to eat eggs 
does not create in them a desire for the old he^n, for I person- 
ally had the pleasure to watch the brood sow wait patiently 
on the old hen in her nest to lay the egg, then the egg was 
quickly disposed of, and the old hen invited back the next 
day by a thankful grunt. I watched this with much interest 
for personal knowledge, for I had heard some one say that 
for a hog to eat eggs would create an appetite for chicken 
meat. Well, this is wrong; for if it were a fact my O. I. C.'s 



BY M. L. ROWERSOX 119 

certainly would all have a desire for the meat, for during the 
summer season they get eggs, more or less, by the old hen 
laying in their nests or houses. I will not state that it is the 
proper thing for chickens to be allowed too much with the 
hogs, for it is a bad idea and wrong, especially where the hogs 
or hog is confined, for often a hog steps on a chicken's leg and 
holds it fast; then the howl of the chicken, and other hogs 
coming along causes a snap at the chicken, and often in this 
way a hog is started. Often where hogs are confined and 
chickens are allowed in pen, hogs, especially shoats, will 
undertake to start a play with the chicken and the smell 
of feathers too close gives them their first lesson. I fully favor 
the out-of-door lots for hogs, where the chicken has a chance 
to escape from the frolics in lhe hog pen. It is a hard matter 
to keep chickens away from the hogs; so great care should be 
taken not to confine chickens with hogs. When a hog is 
once properly started in the chicken-eating business very 
little is to done but to get her to the slaughter house on quick 
terms, for a hog with chicken feathers in his stomach will not 
fatten — feathers will not digest. But my experience has been 
where hogs are properly fed and cared for there is very little 
trouble. A confined hog in close quarters is generally the 
chicken eater. There is always a cause to start this. Too 
close and too long confinement is the greatest cause of any. 
Then another is careless habits — not feeding the chickens 
regularly in their own quarters and allowing them to get started 
and compelled to follow the hog for a little to eat out of their 
droppings, and I have noticed that chickens in large droves 
follow up the hog for a long time for this purpose and often 
pick the hog by getting impatient waiting on droppings, and 
have also noticed as high as three hungry old hens pick the 
hog when droppings would start — this hurts; and I have seen 



120 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

in these cases, when a hog aggravated to fierceness, turns on 
the chicken, and when such a terror happens to get a chick- 
en's head there is one chicken less, that is sure, and I would 
not give much for the hog, yet the hog could not be blamed, 
for we would turn on a chicken in similar circumstances. 
So the hog is often blamed for many things that are really 
not her fault. This is generally the case with brood sows, for 
the old mammy sow has a good deal of care in looking after 
her brood, and her nerves are often tested, and is of a more or 
less nervous disposition. Care should be taken not to depend 
on the chickens' living, or getting their corn generally among 
the hogs. I hardly ever leave my chickens at liberty in the 
morning until some time after the hogs are fed. Besides my 
chickens are fed in their own quarters, and I do not allow any 
chickens to roost in hog pens — a bad fault and a great wrong 
to permit this. There is alway a cause, as stated before; here 
is one, and how often we see this in hog lots: An old "cluck" 
with a large bunch of chicks, who stole here nest away and 
makes her appearance in the early fall with a pile of young- 
sters, and she is left to run with the hogs, and when a hog 
comes close to her little ones of course there is a fuss, picking 
and flapping occurs. This hardly ever ends well, and should 
not be permitted. Better take Mrs. Hen and her family to 
proper quarters, coop and care for her; that will stop the 
danger of losing her and the chicks, and save you the loss 
from having a chicken-eating hog. There are many causes, 
but thes mentioned are the strongest in my judgment and ex- 
perience, while we can see many others if we keep our eyes 
open. At one time I had a fine male terribly close quartered 
for lack of room; he was very gentle and quiet, but a crabbed, 
fussy old hen with six youngsters as fussy as herself, hatched 
out close by his house, thought they owned the whole ranch. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 121 

and the old lieu flapped and picked hi in. While I noticed 
this several times and the results, 1 could not get the old hen 
in my fingers, and at one time I saw her actually drive the 
hog from his trough and then call her little fellows to the feast. 
Well, the outcome was the little fellows were taken for the 
whole cause, and it became too aggravating for him, so he 
just wheeled on them and cleaned up all six. I guess he swal- 
lowed them whole, for he certainly made quick work of it, the 
old hen left the pen, and that was the last of the fuss. 
But he had no desire for chicken meat after this; it did not 
phase him at all; it was peace that he wanted, and I do not 
think he knew what he ate — they went down so fast. It was 
actually amusing to me, for I tried to catch her at different 
times and coop her, but she always escaped me. So we plainly 
see there is a cause for a chicken-eating hog, and, as a rule, 
we can blame it to carelessness on our part; so let us be more 
on the watch. Charcoal and ashes are said to be a good 
remedy to assist in keeping down the craving for chicken meat, 
while careful watching and keeping our chickens under 
check, by not allowing them to depend solely on obtaining 
their living amongst the hogs, is certainly the best preventa- 
tive for this trouble. 






Worms In Hogs 



This is undoubtedly the greatest destructive disease, as it 
may be called, in the hog, and is often mistaken for cholera, 
or a case of "I do not know." Often they become so poluted 
with them that they crawl up in the hog's throat and choke 
them. This is certainly one great point, and most important 
to be guarded against to make hogs profitable. 

I have before me just at this time a firm that has a guar- 
anteed remedy. I have never tested it, but it is open to the 
public to test under a full guarantee, and it costs you nothing 
to test this highly recommended worm remedy, and I give it 
in this book for my readers' benefit, not as an advertisement, 
but ask that my reader, for his on benefit and profit, make 
inquiry of these people. They come to me highly recommended. 

Mi-Cro-Bene is a liquid, easy to give — requires no 
drenching — just put in in feed. It witl save your hogs. 

H. G. HARTER & CO., 
609 S. vSt. Clair St., Toledo, Ohio. 



A Little More About the Hog House, 

Floors, etc. 






We cannot be too careful about this. A brood sow, as 
previously stated in this book, is best off out by herself for best 
results, and a ground floor, on an elevated spot, for the far- 
rowing- house is all right if it is watched and not allowed to 
be rooted up in a hole. I find, however, that the best and 
safest way is to floor them. But be careful about this: do 
not elevate the floor, better get a small load of cinders and 
place your nailing sills, 2x4, flat side down and dig them in 
the cinders and dirt so that the floor is perfectly tight and 
down solid on the earth so no wind or frost can get under it. 
This keeps it dry and warm in winter and cooler in sum- 
mer than if allowed open. It takes less bedding and no fear 
of disease germs collecting. A hog house that is elevated to 
allo^v air under the floor, as is so often the case in new houses, 
is one of the worst things that can be done in a hog house. 
Always have your hog house right down on the solid earth, 
using cinders under the floor, and your floors will last longer 
than if elevated. In fact, a hog house where the air, wind 
and filth can collect under the floor is a good-for-nothing trap. 
It is bound to injure hogs, breed diseases, and all kinds of 
trouble. Take vourself. Why is that we have mattresses. 



124 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

featherbeds, strawticks and comforts to lie on? Why do we 
not just lie on the floor, where there are cracks and the air 
passes underneath us? How often we see a hog house up about 
two feet from the ground and bridges for the hogs to walk up 
on and, the hog is given a nest where the wind blows right 
underneath her, 4 and she would be far better off out in a fence 
corner with a board or straw roof; she would thrive better. 
You can find to this day new hog houses erected; they call 
them hog pens. Well, they should be called hog killers by 
the inch, germ disease breeders. These houses are placed on 
pillars at least twelve feet from the ground to save the floor 
from rotting, it does not make any difference about the hog, 
whether it is comfortable or not. Then, of course, there is an 
outside pen, generally, where straw, corn-cobs, bedding and 
such things collect. I have seen hogs lie out in these outside 
pens. Why do they do this? Because they are comfortable 
there and can keep warm; because they do not become chilled 
from the bottom. By all means keep you hogs on the solid 
earth; no draft or circulation under them; if the floor rots out 
you will have enough gained by keeping them warm and cool 
to replace all your floors at the proper time, and a snug profit 
left. Where a floor is laid on a cinder foundation, it lasts 
longer than elevated, cement or concrete floors. Some think 
this the ideal floor. Well, it is better than an elevated floor, 
but it is not the floor for a hog to sleep on— it is the nature of 
dampness. There is no better floor put under a hog than 
wood laid on cinders. Outside pen feeding houses are all 
right cemented, but not to sleep on, unless covered with 
boards. T have seen large hog houses nicely arranged all 
cemented, troughs and all completed, but their nests were 
floored tight with boards over the cement. This is all right 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX 125 

and readily replaced when retted out, but it is not as good as 
the floor placed on cinders, for it is more or less damp; and I 
never saw a damp nest, if properly cared for, where floor was 
laid tight over eight or ten inches of cinders underneath it. 
As stated, feeding room or drive-way in a hog house should be 
concrete, outside pens for dropping and litter should be 
cement so it can be kept perfectly clean, and the urine and 
the droppings held together, and thereby make the best of 
manure, and all can be saved, which will result in a large 
profit in favor of the keeping of the hog in a proper place, and 
will soon pay for the best hog house in extra product in grain 
on the farm. It is really amazing how many farmers who 
could well afford a splendid hog house and save their hog 
manure during the winter season, leave it absolutely go to 
waste. It may sound ridiculous, but there are score of places 
where enough hog manure is going to waste in two years that, 
if the hogs were properly bedded and housed and the manure 
cared for, the profit out of the manure alone would build the 
proper house or houses, let alone the extra profit on the hogs 
for their care. 

There are many things to consider for profit in the hog- 
raising, and all parts should be w 7 atched with utmost care. 

The style of a farrowing house, as given on a previous 
page in this book, is without a doubt the best plan that can 
be obtained. This house does not require railing or shelfiug 
to keep sow from lying on her pigs, the little fellows can es- 
cape her tramping feet by scampering out to the edge where 
she cannot walk on them. This house can, of course, be 
erected out of wood, where timber is plentiful, and in any size 
desired; but I doubt whether it can be erected any cheaper 
in most localities than this house can be bought for. 



126 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

These people will, no doubt, will furnish larger houses. 1 
know I shall want larger ones. But for ordinary hogs, brood 
sows especially, this house— 5x6— is large enough. Care 
must be taken in putting a floor under this house, not to let it 
project out to allow the water run in; this can easily be 
avoided; as a rule, a high or elevated place with solid dirt 
under it is a good floor for it. 

Many different styles of cheap hog shelters can be erected, 
but, by all means, stay on the ground; old mother earth is a 
great thing for the hogs, and when you elevate them from it 
and allow drafts under them, you are doing the wrong thing, 
and you cannot bed them heavy enough to keep them com- 
fortable on an elevated floor. Swinging doors, stiffly made, 
are a nuisance and often cause dead pigs or hunchbacks: 
better .make a cast-iron door, flexible, if any; the steel house 
has a flexible cast-iron door. A house properly faced and 
good bedding has very little use for a door, only in farrow- 
ing time, when weather is cold; then a blanket can be hung 
vip for a few days or nights. In my experience, little pigs 
when four to five days old want free access — no hindrance 
by doors and so on. Give the pig plenty of room and half a 
chance, for he is of a roving disposition and should not be 
obstructed to his injury by flapping doors and the like, or per- 
mit him to crawl through a fence where he has to scratch and 
push to get though and thereby injure his back. Give them 
plenty of room and free access in their quarters. 

As previously stated, my ambition to help my fellow- 
brother in the hog line along has led me to write this book, 
and the cost of printing and advertising to bring it to the man 
where it belongs on every farm costs hundreds of dollars. So I 
fully trust that none of my readers will consider this a money- 



BY M. L. BOWKRSOX 127 

making proposition; the fact is I have placed the price too 
low to even give me a profit, figuring the cost to properly dis- 
tribute this book. So I ask that as many as can assist in the 
work of placing it among the farmers direct, so the cost of 
advertising may be reduced in a large measure. The price of 
the first thousand of these books should be at least $3 instead 
of $2. 

Again my aim and object in this most needed work for 
our great country is to put this book before our people at about 
actual cost of publication and mailing. So let us not be sel- 
fish and work together and assist our neighbors in this great 
hog question with this book. 

And as my time is very much limited and none of us are 
perfect, I trust you will pardon any error made in this first 
publication, and any reader not understanding any part that 
he is especially interested in I shall be pleased to hear from 
such a one and do all in my power to assist him in that part, 
for I am the most liberal bigoted-headed Dutchman you ever 
met. Again, anyone of my readers in this book having any 
better plans and methods of caring for hogs and rearing them 
for profit, or any part that was overlooked, shall most cer- 
tainly appreciate his idea of the same and publish it. 

What we need and want is better hogs, more of them and 
more profit, no matter what breed. Let us stand together and 
put this selfish, hateful, begrudging spirit from us and do 
unto others as we wish to be done by them and we certainly 
will live happier and have less contention with our fellow-man. 
I have nothing but the best wishes for my brother-breeder, no 
matter what breed he favors, and for him to meet with the 




ti 



BY M. L. BOWKRSOX 



129 



highest success is my best and highest wish and favor for him. 

Trusting that this book will aid and assist thousands of 
farmers aiid breeders to a higher profit with and in this high 
.^rade industry, I remain Respectfully yours, 

M. L. BOWERSOX. 



/ 




The O. I. C. Swine Breeders' Standard 
of Perfection 



This description can be largely practiced on any breed 
for form and type and is a great help in selection. 



Color 2 

Head and Pace 5 

Ears 2 

Jowl 2 

Neck 3 

Brisket 3 

Shoulders 6 

Chest and Heart Girth. • . 10 

Hack 7 

Sides • • 5 

Ribs 7 



Loin 

Belly 

Flank 2 

II am and Rump H) 

Tail 2 

Legs 5 

Feet 8 

Coat ;> 

Action ;> 

Symmetry ■ . 4 

Total 100 



BY M. L. HOWKKSOX 131 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Color — White. Black spots in hair disqualify, but blue si 

in hide (commonly known as freckles) while objec 

tionable, do not argue impurity of blo< 
Objections — Color any other than white. 

Head and Pace — Head short and wide; cheeks neat (no1 
too full): jaws broad and strong: forehead medium, 
high and wide; face short and smooth; wide between 
the eyes, which should be prominent, clear and 
bright, and free from fat surroundings; nose neat, 
tapering and slightly dished. 

Objections — Head long, narrow or coarse: forehead low 
and narrow; jaws contracted and weak; face long, 
narrow and straight; nose coarse, clumsy or dished 
like a Berkshire; eyes small, deeply sunken or ob 
scure: impaired vision. 
EARS — Medium size; soft, not too thick; not clumsy; pointing 
forward and slightly outward; drooping gracefully 
and fully under control of the animal. 

Objection — Too large or too small; coarse; thick: stiff or 
upright; drooping too close to face: not under control. 
Brisket — Full; well let down; joined well to jowl in line with 
belly. 

Objections - Narrow; tucked up or depressed. 
Jowl — Smooth; neat; firm; full; carrying fullue>s well back- 
to shoulders and brisket when head is carried up level. 

Objections — Light; rough and deeply wrinkled; too large 
and flabby; not carrying fullness back to shoulders 
and brisket. 



132 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

Neck-- Wide; deep; short and nicely arched; neatly tapering 
from head to shoulder. 
Objections — Narrow; thin; long; flat on top; tucked up; 
not extending down to breast bone. 
Shoulders — Broad; deep and full; extending in line with 
the side and carrying size down to line of belly. 
Objections — Deficient in width or depth; extending above 
line of back; thick beyond line of sides and hams; 
shields on boars too coarse and prominent. 
Chest and Heart Girth — Full around the heart and back 
of the shoulders; ribs extending well down; wide 
and full back of fore legs. 
Objections — Narrow; pinched; heart girth less than, flank 
measure or length of body from top of head to root 
of tail, or ereased back of shoulders. 
Back — Broad; straight or slightly arched; uniform width; 
free from lumps or rolls; same height and width at 
shoulder as at ham. 
Objections— Narrow, swayed, humped, creasing back of 
shoulders, sun-fish shaped, uneven width, lumps or 
rolls. 
Sides — Full; smooth; deep; carrying size down to line of 
belly; even with line of ham and shoulders. 
Objections — Flat, thin, flabby, uneven surface, com- 
pressed at bottom, shrunken at shoulder and ham. 
R IBS — Long; well sprung at top and bottom; giving animal 
a square form. 
Objections — Too short, flat. 
LoiN--Broad and full. 

Objections — Narrow, depressed. 



BY M. L. BOWKRSOX 133 

Belly — Same width as back: full; straight; drooping as low 
at flank as at bottom of chest; line of lower edge 
running parallel with sides. 
Objections — Narrow, pinched, sagging or flabby. 

Flank — Full and even with body. 

Objections — Thin, tucked up or drawn in. 

Ham and Rump — Broad; full; long; wide and deep: admit- 
ting of no swell; buttock full, neat and clean: stifle 
well covered with flesh, nicely tapering toward the 
hock: rump slightly rounding from loin to root of 
tail, same width as back, making an even line with 
sides. 
Objections — Xarrow, short, not filled out to stifle, too 
much cut up in crotch or twist, not coming down to 
hock, buttocks flabby, rump flat, narrow, too long, 
too sharp or peaked at root of tail. 

T A i l — Small, smooth, nicely tapering, root slightly covered 
with flesh, carried in a curl. 
Objections — Coarse, too long, clumsy, straight. 

Legs — Medium length, strong and straight, set well apart 
and well under body, bone of good size, firm, well 
muscled, wide above knee and hock, round and 
tapering below knee and hock, enabling the animal 
to cary its weight with ease, pasterns short and 
nearly upright. 
Objections — Too short or too long, weak, crooked, too 
close together, muscles weak, bone too large and 
coarse without taper, pasterns long, crooked or slim. 

Feet — Short, firm, tough, animal standing well on toes. 

Objections — Hoofs long, slim, weak: toes spreading, 
crooked or turned up. 



134 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



Coat — Fine; either straight or wavy with preference for 

straight; evenly distributed and covering the body: 

nicely clipped coats no objection. 
Objections — Bristles; swirls, hair coarse, thin, standing 

up, not evenly distributed over all the body except 

the belly. 
Action — Easy and graceful; high carriage; active; gentle 

and easily handled. In males testicles should be 

readily seen, and of same size and carriage. 
Objections — Sluggish, awkw T ard, low carriage, wild, 

vicious. In males testicles not distinctly visible, or 

not of same size and carriage. 

Symmetry — A fit proportion of the several parts of the body 
to each other, forming a harmonious combination. 
Objections — A disproportionate development in one or 
more points; or lack of proper development in any 
point. 



I 






Profits 



Does it pay to raise pork and be in the pork business' 
Well, I would certainly think so. Sidemeat or bacon, as we 
hear so much about now-a-days, the bacon hog. What is 
the b^con hog-? How do we manage to get the bacon that is 
most in demand? We can breed and feed for it. But there 
is more in feeding for it than in breeding. Lots of bran and 
oats in v the fattening process makes the streak of lean and the 
steak of fat, and this is what is termed a choice Xo. 1 bacon. 
A price of eight or ten cents per pound, most especially, has 
been considered a good fair price for bacon. Well, what 
about the present price? I just delivered today, at this writ- 
ing, March, 1911, a bunch of bacon at twenty-five cents per 
pound. Does it pay to raise pork? Does it pay to take care of 
our hogs? Does it pay to know how* to care for them for prof- 
fit? It certainly does. For that purpose this book is published. 
Take up the hog business; do not delay; stay with it; give 
them the best of care; stay with it — prices up or down — and 
you are sure to make money. 

Does it pay to be prepared for breeding custom - 
It certainly does. Today I have a young sow, brought thir- 
teen miles, because the man knew 1 was fixed for it and he 
wanted to breed to a large and somewhat aged boar. A good 
idea. Breeding young boars on old sows and young >o\vs to 



136 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

old or matured boars is the proper this. We bred his 125 
pound sow to a 700 pound boar with perfect ease, safety and 
quietness. He was not here fifteen minutes until he was ready 
to return home, as far as the work was concerned, highly 
pleased. It pays to be equipped for the business; and let the 
community once know that you are prepared and understand 
your business, and you will have no trouble at all if you use 
the Safety Breeding- Crate. Do not overlook this profitable 
part in the hog business; it brings in a nice sum the year" 
around. But do not do a credit business, unless it is all right, 
and you know it is. 

Here is one feature of the utmost importance in the mail 
order business that we people, as inquirers for new stock, 
make. We want new stock, and we know we must have it, 
but we put it off and think we can buy whenever ready for 
it. This is a mistake. Better buy the best when pigs and 
raise them ourselves. Two great advantages in this. First, 
we get the best — we get our pig before the bunch is culled , 
Second, we raise it ourself, and we can tame and mould it 
largely to our liking — a grand thing to practice indeed. 

Then, here is another great mistake we make in this in- 
quiring business when writing to a breeder. If a farmer and 
write but few letters, we are apt to want promptness and do 
not stop to think that the breeder, if he has any business at 
all, has thousands of people to deal with and attend to their 
inquiries and answer questions, and if our letter is not an- 
swered for a few days we should not get impatient and hot- 
headed and send a second letter in haste. And often we ask 
questions out of idle curtosity, when we do not need anything, 
and would not know what to do with a pig if we had one. 



BY M. L. BOWERSOX i:>7 

This is wrong and an injustice to the breeder, who generally 
means things well and does his best to please everybody. 
Then, there is also a fault with the breeder. A man sends an 
inquiry for a certain type, age, sex, and so on, describes his 
wants and asks prompt attention, and also states (often 
underlines it) that he has made similar inquiries of other 
breeders, and that where he can buy the cheapest is where his 
custom will go. Too often this occurs to some breeders, and 
they commence cutting the price. This is wrong. Mold to 
your price and quality. Do not sell a hog or pig for less than 
it cost you to raise the same just to get ahead of the other 
breeder. You chop your nose off in this deal; for likely this 
man will give you his order, and he may come back to have 
you present him with another hog or two; then you become 
sore at your own game. Mr. Breeder, be careful. This is a 
free country, and if a customer is wishing to obtain different 
prices this is his privilege. He is right. Often he gets bit by 
wanting to buy cheap — this is his business; and you, Mr. 
Breeder, should not join in such a game. You know what 
your hogs are worth; you know what it has cost you to ad- 
vertise to bring your business in an honorable way before the 
public; then do not become excited and cut prices on your 
brother breeder — you hurt your own business, not the other 
fellow's. Then again, often we breeders allow ourselves to be- 
come hot-headed at such inquiries and do not answer them at 
all, or in a saucy, stuck-up way. This is wrong, indeed, and 
should not be done. Answer all your inquiries in a gentle- 
manly way; explain why your prices are what they are; tell 
this man what your stock is and give him your best price, so 
you can afford to keep up your herd or herds to the top stand 
ard, and he will appreciate your kindness, if not at the time 



138 



RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 



he is after bids, he will likely come and pay you your price 
at another time, and you can treat him like a gentleman. 
It does not pay to get hot-headed. Put a smile on your face, 
if your corns do hurt; when the clouds are thick keep a smile, 
the sun will shine again, and life is too short to grouch away 
any of it; let us meet the world with a smile and we 
are generally met with the same in return; for with what 
measure we measure it will generally be measured. So let us 
be happy and look on the bright side of life, most especially 
with the hogs for profit. 



Cone] usion 



Now, friends, I have been with you with many, I trust, 

interesting and profitable thoughts for you, and time and 
space forbids to go any farther. So with the best and most 
hearty wishes for your abundant success with hogs and high- 
est benefits in this book, I trust we will all give the hog more 
attention. 

There is nothing on the farm that brings the fanner 
more ready cash and profit than the hog, if properly cared for 
and fed, and I trust that I have in this book encouraged my 
readers to this end, and I feel most sincerely proud of this 
book, and am thankful that I undertook the task of writing 
it, and fully trust that it will be highly appreciated among 
my many friends, and that each and every one in this great 
country of ours who gets one of these books will inake an 
effort to sell some to his neighbors; for by so doing I fully be- 
lieve you are doing your neighbor a kind act, and help the 
great hog cause along, for it is so much needed. Our Amer- 
ican hogs need better care, so we can realize more profit. 
So let us not slack in pushing this great work, and I believe 
this book will do every owner double the good it costs him. 



140 RAISING HOGS FOR PROFIT 

The price is $2.00 only, and a liberal commission to agents. 
Write for terms at once. Agents wanted everywhere to put 
this grand work on every farm in the United States. Let us 
not be selfish, but work together in this great cause and do 
what we can for more hogs and better pork. 

Thanking you, one and all, in advance for any favor 
you may give in this work, I remain 

Respectfully yours, 

M. L. BOWERSOX, 
Writer and manager of M. L. Bowersox O.I.C. BreedingCo. 

Bradford, Ohio 



Our catalogue of our hosg, the great money maker O.I.C., 
is free for the asking. Get it and learn what we are doing in 
this line. Address M. L. Bowersox, 

R. R. 4, box 9, Darke County, Bradford, Ohio 



H 184 8* 




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